A 32-year-old fisherman who went missing after falling overboard from a fishing boat while tugging on the fishing net near Pulau Pemanggil, has been found. The body was discovered washed ashore at a beach in Pantai Pengudang in Pulau Bintan, Indonesia, on March 15, according to Johor Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) director First Admiral Nurul Hizam Zakaria.
Nurul Hizam Zakaria stated, “The Indonesian National Police informed the Johor Baru Maritime Rescue SubCentre (MRSC) about their findings based on the clothes that the victim was wearing. We then brought the victim’s sister to Pulau Bintan to help identify the body at the Kepri-Tanjung Pinang Hospital. She confirmed that the body was her brother, Muhammad Sulfian Alwi, 32.”
The body had drifted a distance of 86.3 nautical miles (160km) from where he was last seen. “We would like to thank Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, the Bintan police, and the Consul-General of the Republic of Indonesia in Johor Baru for helping us with the search and rescue operation that is now officially over,” Nurul Hizam Zakaria added.
On March 8, the fisherman went missing after falling overboard from a fishing boat while tugging the fishing net near Pulau Pemanggil at 4.10pm.
