A 41-year-old Filipino migrant fisherman who had drunk alcohol before boarding the boat he worked on accidentally fell into the water late on Monday, and was found by Kaohsiung firefighters after an hour-long search but was pronounced dead in hospital.
At 11:50pm, the worker named Valdez slipped and fell into the sea, China News Service reported. His colleagues jumped into the water but failed to locate him.
The boat returned to Ch’ien-chen Fishing Harbor, where the fishermen sought police assistance with the help of vendors there.
The Kaohsiung Harbor Police Service Corps sent out three teams to search for the missing fisherman, and at 1:20am on Tuesday, a team of eight firefighters successfully pulled the unconscious man out of the water.
The victim was taken to Yuan’s General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead an hour later.
There were rumors that Valdez had been pushed into the water during a dispute among migrant workers, but that was dismissed by a preliminary police investigation. Police determined that no fight had occurred, and that the tragedy was an accident resulting from the influence of alcohol.