Basarnas said that 22 survivors were brought to a harbour in Banjarmasin on Tuesday, after bad weather had prevented their rescue a day earlier.
“The plan was to evacuate them to Trisakti Port yesterday, but adverse weather conditions prevented us from doing so,” local search and rescue agency head I Putu Sudayana told reporters.
“We cannot fight nature; the swells and waves in the area were extremely high.”
Four bodies were also airlifted to Banjarmasin Tuesday, Basarnas said.
Nearly 1,100 rescuers, including from the navy and police, were involved in the search operation, which also included more than a dozen vessels and five aircraft, the agency said.
Marine accidents are a regular occurrence in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands that relies heavily on boat connections for daily transport and tourism.
Lax safety standards and unpredictable weather are the main reasons for the disasters.
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