The sunken Sewol ferry was raised to the surface of the water on March 23, almost three years after it sank off the southwestern island.

The hull will be further lifted 13 meters before it is tied to the salvage barges. The salvage work will be completed when the wreckage is successfully transported to a port of Mokpo by a semisubmersible vessel.

“We will need a precise calculation but it is true that we experienced huge loss and we even got a hundred million dollar loan,” said Chong Hong, the director general of Shanghai Salvage, a Chinese salvage company in charge of the salvage work.

“It is a huge loss in financial aspect but we tried our best to comfort and encourage the families of the victims.” he said.

Once the ferry is brought to the shore of Mokpo, authorities will try to find the nine missing bodies and determine the causes of the sinking of the ship.

Sewol was heading to Jeju Island carrying 476 passengers -- mostly secondary students from Danwon high school on a field trip -- when it ran ashore and sank off island of Jindo on April 16 2014. Only 172 passengers were rescued and nine bodies are still missing.

South Korean government announced the salvage operation plan in 2015, but the bad weather and high tides have delayed the operation several times.