Karwar : Personnel of the Coastal Security Force (CSF) on Thursday rescued 33 fishermen, after water entered their boat and it was about to sink, in the Arabian Sea here.

The fishing boat ‘Rameshwara Krupa,’ belonging to Gopichand, had entered the sea on Wednesday night. When it was 13 nautical miles away from the Karwar port, water started entering the boat. The fishermen, on realising this, sent an SOS to the CSF.

A team of the CSF, headed by inspector S M Rane, swung into action in an interceptor boat and rescued the fishermen.

The fishing boat was brought safely to the Baithakol port.

Vikas Tandel, one of the fishermen rescued, told DH that they had lost 15 tonnes of fish due to the incident.

Tandel said that they decided to throw the fish they had caught back into the sea to prevent the boat from sinking. This amounted to a loss of lakhs of rupees, the fisherman said.