Mr Stashkov disappeared after going for a swim from a friend’s yacht moored off the Similan Islands on Oct 31. Attempts by Mikhail Kolmogorov, his friend and the captain of the yacht Revolution, failed to recover him. (See story here.)
Royal Thai Navy and park officer search teams scoured the waters for Mr Stashkov after they were alerted to his disappearance, and later expanded their search to include landfall in case he made it ashore one of the many isles in the archipelago.
However, they have so far failed to locate him, and park officials have now reduced their efforts to keeping a lookout during their standard patrols, Similan National Park Chief Ruamsilp Manajongprasert told The Phuket News today (Nov 16).
“We co-ordinated our search efforts with the Royal Thai Navy in the first week of seaching for him, from Nov 1-7, but now we have started to reduce our search to our daily patrols around the park, which includes Payan Island and Huyong Island,” Park Chief Ruamsilp explained.
“We also no longer have officers land on the the islands to search for him, we now just search by boat,” he said.
“We are staying in touch with other tour boats entering the area in case they have seen anything, but we have yet to learn of any hints that may help us find him,” he added.
Park Chief Ruamsilp confirmed that the Royal Thai Navy is also continuing its search for Mr Stashkov, but admitted that he did not know the current extent of their efforts.
Repeated attempts by The Phuket News to contact Lt Kwanjai Kerwan, who is the Royal Thai Navy Third Area Command public liaison in Phuket, have been unsuccessful.