Ship owner brings in technical divers for retrieval ops

Owners of the ill-fated wooden vessel Catalyn B brought in technical divers Monday to help the Philippine Coast Guard in retrieving bodies of victims of a maritime tragedy off Cavite last December. Radio dzBB's Carlo Mateo reported that the San Nicolas Shipping Lines presented the technical divers to Coast Guard officials at a meeting. One of the divers' groups represented at the meeting was the Philippine Technical Divers headed by Alex Santos, who suggested some methods for the retrieval operations. Coast Guard divers are still searching for remains of victims of the sinking last December 24 of Catalyn B off Limbones Island in Cavite. In that incident, the wooden-hulled ship sank after colliding with the metal-hulled fishing vessel Anatalya. Last Friday, a veteran Coast Guard diver died while taking part in search operations. [See: RP Coast Guard to give diver highest award posthumously] But the owners of Catalyn B also asked the owners of Anatalya to help in the search operations. Meanwhile, a closed-door organizational meeting was held Monday for the Board of Marine Inquiry's investigation into the tragedy. Coast Guard Metro Manila head Commodore Luis Tuason Jr. will head the investigation. - LBG, GMANews.TV