At least 54 sailors are dead and 63 have been rescued after a trawler sank off the Russian coast north of Japan . The freezer trawler with an international crew of 132 sank this morning in the freezing waters of the Sea of Okhotsk 205 miles off Russia 's Kamchatka Peninsula . Emergency services in Kamchatka said 63 crew members of the Dalny Vostok were rescued with the sea 's temperature near zero degrees Celsius ( 32 degrees Fahrenheit ) - but a further 15 are still missing . Scroll down for video . The freezer trawler with an international crew of 132 sank this morning in the freezing waters of the Sea of Okhotsk 205 miles off Russia 's Kamchatka Peninsula . More than 25 fishing boats in the area helped to pull the crew members to safety , the emergency services said in a statement on their website . The ship was carrying 78 Russian nationals , as well as 54 foreign nationals from Myanmar , Ukraine , Lithuania and Vanuatu . No official cause for the sinking has been given but the Interfax news agency said drifting ice in the chilly Pacific waters may have played a role . Water flooded the engine compartment and the trawler sank within 15 minutes , the BBC said . The trawler sank 205 miles west of Krutogorovsky settlement in the Kamchatka region and 250 km south of the city of Magadan . Emergency services in Kamchatka said 63 crew members of the Dalny Vostok trawler were rescued with the sea 's temperature near zero degrees Celsius ( file picture of the Sea of Okhotsk ) The Russian Emergencies Ministry sent an Mi-8 helicopter with rescuers and doctors aboard to deliver medical assistance and transport rescued crew members to hospitals in Magadan . Viktor Klepikov , coordinating . captain of the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky maritime rescue . coordination centre , told Reuters : 'The rescue operation is going on , we are still looking for . 15 people . 'At this time we do not know what . might have caused the tragedy . ' Russia 's TASS news agency cited a deputy head of the . Kamchatka region as saying the crew might have violated safety . rules by exceeding the capacity of cargo storage . 'According to preliminary information , the shipwreck . occurred while hauling a 100-tonne fishing seine , ' TASS reported Sergei Khabarov as saying . A telephone hotline for families of the crew has also been set up . The home port of the trawler , which was owned by Magellan LLC , was Nevelsk in Russia 's Sakhalin region .
Freezer trawler with crew of 132 sank 200 ships off cape Peninsula . At least 54 of the crew are dead and a further 63 have been rescued . Reports ship Dalny # ##sk have hit sea ice in Pacific waters .