Help is near for seven Korean fishermen badly burned in a fire that swept through a fishing boat in the Southern Ocean.
The Jeong Woo 2 issued a mayday call from the Ross Sea near Antarctica about 3am (2am AEDT) on Wednesday, and two Korean fishing vessels, including sister ship Jeong Woo 3, raced to its aid.
The Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) confirmed 37 of the 40 sailors on the 51-metre boat had been rescued.
Advertisement: Story continues below
Three missing men were believed to have been killed in the fire as it burned through the ship’s accommodation block.
RCCNZ says two crew members have extensive burns and another five have less serious injuries.
A spokeswoman told AAP the US research vessel Nathaniel B Palmer was expected arrive alongside the ship about 8pm (6pm AEDT).
The US ship has hospital facilities on board and will assess the injured sailors, before deciding whether to transfer them to the US Antarctic base McMurdo for more treatment.
The Jeong Woo 2 was still on fire and was sinking.
The 26-year-old ship, owned by the Korean-owned Sunwoo Corporation, fishes for Patagonian Toothfish, rays and crabs in the Antarctic Ocean.
The distress call is the second to be sent from Antarctic waters recently.
The Russian fishing vessel Sparta hit ice in a similar position in the Ross Sea in mid-December.
It was repaired at sea over two weeks before going to Nelson, where it arrived on Tuesday.
In December 2010, a Korean fishing boat, No.1 Insung, sunk in the same area, with a loss of 22 lives.
The Ross Sea should be closed off to fishing vessels after three boat accidents in just over a year, the Green Party says.
The party has joined calls from environmental group The Last Ocean to have most of the 960,000 square kilometres of sea near Antarctica transformed into a marine-protected area.
2012 AAP