VLADIVOSTOK, April 2 -- The death toll in a fishing freezer trawler sinking off Russia's Kamchatka peninsula Thursday morning has reached 54, Russia Today reported.

Artur Rets, chief of the Rescue Center at the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky port, said 63 have been rescued and 15 went missing.

The fishing trawler, Dalniy Vostok, had 132 crew members aboard when it sank in the Sea of Okhotsk at 6:15 a.m. local time Thursday.

Artur also said among the 132 staff, 78 are Russian nationals and the 54 others are from Myanmar, Lithuania, Ukraine and Vanuatu.

A total of 26 vessels are participating in rescue at the incident site, where water temperatures are near zero degree Celsius with waves up to 1.5 meters high. The preliminary investigation indicated drifting ice may have torn a hole in the vessel, which led to the trawler's sinking.