After their fishing vessel sank in rough seas, four fishermen spent 11 hours clinging to flotsam three miles off Mayaro before their rescue by a tugboat crew and the Coast Guard.

The search continued last night for a fifth man. Any hope of finding him alive is slim, police were told.

Rescued were Venezuelans Sando Marin, 32; his nephew, Jose Marin, 15; and Juan Gomez, 26; and Guyanese John Jose Medina, 26.

Lost at sea is Asta Labi, 23.

Their 53-foot long fishing boat, named Margarita Mia II, sank.

Late yesterday, police began finding plastic barrels washing ashore in Mayaro. More than a dozen were brought to the police station by truck. It is uncertain if the barrels came from the boat.

The men were last night at the immigrant detention centre in Cumuto, while arrangements are made to get them home.

Captain Sando Marin told investigators that at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, the boat left a town on the Orinoco River in Venezuela and headed to fishing grounds in the Gulf of Paria.

The Orinoco Delta is located south of Trinidad on the South America mainland.

Around 8 a.m. on Thursday, the boat was swamped in rough seas, the men reported. They held on to gas tanks and water bottles. Two swam to the tugboat that night.

The Coast Guard issued a media release yesterday, stating that the captain of the tugboat Goliath reported that two men swam up to their vessel three miles east of Mayaro Bay.

The men said they were in Venezuelan waters when the vessel overturned, and three were missing. The Goliath found a third person, and a Coast Guard interceptor boat found a fourth sailor.

Other boats were called out to search, and a SAUTT helicopter and Trinidad and Tobago Air Guard did aerial searches.

Coast Guard public relations officer, Leut Kirk Jean-Baptiste, said the Guyanese and Venezuelan consulates have been notified.