French sailor dies on tuna vessel in the Seychelles waters

File Photo: Tuna fishing vessels in the Seychelles Port of Victoria, April 2014 (Seychelles News Agency)

(Seychelles News Agency) - A French sailor has died following an accident onboard a French tuna fishing vessel ‘Le Drennec'. The incident occurred in the Seychelles waters on Wednesday.

"Mickael Le Doze died after being struck by a cable and was thrown against a winch,” Dominique Bervas representative of French company CFTO in Seychelles (Compagnie Française de Thon Océanique).

"The Vessel was located about a day and a half away from Port Victoria when the accident occurred, the crew members tried to give him the necessary care, but they were too far from the port" said Bervas.

The victim who is from Plonéour-Lanvern, in the Western part of France was the boatswain onboard ‘Le Drennec’.

"The body is now in the hands of the Seychelles police to undertake the necessary formalities before it is repatriated to France," said Bervas.

The Seychelles police has confirmed in a press statement issued this afternoon that 41 year old Mikael Jean Guillaume Le Doze was certified dead at the Seychelles hospital.

This was after the arrival of the tuna fishing Vessel MV Drennec in Port Victoria at around 11:25 pm local time last night.

“According to the Vessel's captain, Patrick Hellies, Mr Le Doze was working on the deck and while pulling the line the pulley got loose and hit him on the head where he fell down and hit the back of his head,” read the statement.

The police is conducting an investigation and await autopsy results to determine the cause of death.

Port Victoria, the main port of the capital of the Seychelles islands, is one of the busiest tuna fishing ports in the world, where an average of 200,000 metric tonnes of fish are landed and transhipped every year.

According to statistics from the Seychelles Fishing Authority, fisheries accounts for a yearly income of $370 million into the Seychelles economy.

updated at 4.26pm