Boat sinks in shark-filled laEte

Press, 30 September 1983, Page 6

Boat sinks in shark-filled laEte

NZPA Managua A boat carrying an estimated 127 passengers and a cargo of livestock caught fire and sank in sharkinfested Lake Nicaragua before dawn yesterday. Witnesses feared that as many as 100 people died. Jose Marenco Torres, who was rescued, said that screaming passengers had hurled themselves into the lake when the fire broke out on the Santa Elena, although they knew the waters were filled with sharks.

Red Cross officials said that they did not know how many people were aboard

the boat, which sank after catching fire on a journey from the southern port of San Carlos to Granada, 40km south of the capital, Managua. The Red Cross director at Granada, Daniel Mendoza, said that 27 people had been rescued and 13 bodies recovered. He said that the Santa Elena and similar boats were designed to carry about 60 passengers. But he could not confirm Mr Marenco’s assertion that he had seen 127 names on a passenger list before he boarded the boat when it stopped at the port of Mor-

ritos. If Mr Marenco’s report is confirmed, 100 people could have been killed in the accident.

“Even though supposedly they have capacity for 60 people, they usually carry more than 100, aside from the cargo they take with them,” Mr Mendoza said. The boats usually took on passengers who showed up at dockside at the last moment.

“We’ve sent a diving team and two helicopters to find the rest of the passengers,” he said. Julio Martinez, a boat owner who joined the search for survivors, said

that he had taken most of the survivors from the Santa Elena to Granada. “The truth is that after a long search we couldn’t find any others, and because of that we think they drowned,” Mr Martinez said. Officials said that the Santa Elena sank between the islands of Zapateras and Altagracia, more than 48km south-east of Managua. The lake, which extends from Granada to the Costa Rican border, is separated from the Pacific Ocean by a 16-24 km wide strip of land. Sharks are known to inhabit the lake.