According to maritime officials on Thursday, the death toll from a sinking boat on Monday has climbed to 85 after 21 more bodies were found on Wednesday.

Maritime officials reported that 138 individuals had been on board when the 39-foot wooden boat sank off the shore of the island on Monday.

Three of the passengers remain missing, while fifty people have been rescued. 

Police General Zafisambatra Ravoavy told AFP Wednesday that 21 bodies have been recovered while the toll currently stands at 85 dead in todal, including 5 children.

According to investigators, the boat was a cargo vessel not authorized to transport assengers. It set off from Antseraka for Soanierana-Ivongo, roughly 100 km to the south.

According to Adrien Fabrice Ratsimbazafy of the River and Maritime Port Agency (APMF), the boat was pushed onto a reef by waves after a failed engine. 

Alban Menavolo, mayor of Soanierana-Ivongo, told AFP that the majority of passengers were seasonal workers according to personal items that were retrieved.

The workers were apparently returning to their families to celebrate the end of the year after harvesting cloves. 

Cloves are one of Madagascar's hallmark crops, along with vanilla, and the harvest season typically lasts from October until late December.

According to local residents, the distance between Antseraka and Soanierana-Ivongo can be crossed in less than 3 hours by boat.

Makeshift graveyard 

Jean-Edmond Randrianantenaina, the APMF chief said 20 bodies were buried in a makeshift graveyard as they await to be identified.

A national day of mourning was announced by President Andry Rajoelina to remember the deceased. 

During the search-and-rescue mission, a police aircraft crashed and left one individual missing. 

According to one of the helicopter's two survivors, Police Minister Serge Gelle, 57, the chopper took off from Antananarivo and was hovering close to the sea when it was battered by gusts and plunged into the waters.

He and another officer were ejected from the chopper and had to swim for over 12 hours to reach the shore, where they were separately picked up by fishermen around 75 kilometers from the port of Toamasina.

The helicopter pilot's body was discovered on a beach on Thursday.