The number of Bangladeshi fishermen missing and feared drowned during tropical storms in the Bay of Bengal rose to 36 on Sunday as the coast guard and the navy continued their search for survivors, officials said. The toll of the untraced fishermen soared as an association of owners of sea trawlers in the coastal town of Patuakhali said 28 of their fishermen had gone missing in the Bay amidst high waves touched off by gale winds at the weekend, according to DPA. Rescuers picked up 29 survivors from the storm-battered trawlers before these were engulfed some 100 kilometres from the Bangladesh coast. Several survivors were hospitalized in the seashore town of Barguna, said association spokesman Abdus Salam. He said the Mahipur Trawler Owners Association sent its own rescue teams after a flotilla of fishing trawlers sailed into a monsoon rainstorm in the Bay.
