STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- At least 108 bodies have been found, the coast guard says
- 194 people are still missing; 174 have been rescued
- "Divers can't even see their hands," a search official says
- Search efforts are focused on the 3rd and 4th floors of the vessel
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Jindo, South Korea (CNN) -- Inflatable powerboats zipped across the sea off the South Korean coast Tuesday, ferrying divers to the area where the ferry Sewol sank last week with hundreds of people on board.
Two huge buoys bobbing on the surface mark the spot underneath which the ship lies. Dozens of vessels, ranging from dinghies to warships, surround the site.
Divers plop into the cold, opaque water, picking up guide ropes that lead them into the submerged ferry where they can see barely a foot in front of them.
"Divers can't even see their hands," said Koh Myung-seok, a spokesman for the joint task force leading the search.
Authorities say the efforts are still a search and rescue operation, but no survivors have been found since 174 people were rescued soon after the ferry went down on Wednesday.
The death toll keeps ticking grimly upwards as divers bring more bodies to the surface. The number of dead reached 108 on Tuesday afternoon; the number of people still missing stood at 194.
'It's a mess'
On the shore, family members of missing passengers wait anxiously, many of them parents of high school students who taking the ferry on a field trip. Some relatives are called into white domed tents to identify the remains of their loved ones.
The divers' efforts are focusing on the third and fourth floors of the ferry, but gaining entry to a cafeteria where a lot of passengers may have congregated is proving difficult.
"There are a lot of objects, including furniture. It's a mess there," Koh said Monday evening.
Because the ferry sank during the morning, Koh said authorities think a lot of people may have been in the cafeteria at the time.
Divers have been trying to breach a wall between the lounge area and the cafeteria, Park Seung-gee, an official at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, said Tuesday.
"The conditions are so bad, my heart aches. We're going in thinking there may be survivors. When we have to come back with nothing, we can't even face the families," said Bard Yoon, one of the divers.
Captain and crew criticized
As the search continues beneath the waves, investigators are still trying to establish what happened to the ship to make it list to one side before tipping into the ocean.
Initial criticism has focused on the captain and some of the crew members. South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Monday that there actions were "akin to murder."
The captain, Lee Joon-seok, has defended his decision to tell passengers to stay put as the ferry began sinking, saying he was concerned about the sea's strong currents and cold water, as well as a lack of rescue ships.
A radio transcript released by authorities over the weekend suggested that passengers on the ship couldn't reach lifeboats to escape because the ship tilted so quickly that it left many of them unable to move.
Koh said that most of the bodies recovered were wearing life vests.
Seven people arrested
The captain and six crew members, who made it off the ship alive unlike many of the passengers, have been arrested and are facing criminal charges.
Questions have been raised about why a third mate was steering the ship when it ran into trouble off South Korea's southwestern coast. The captain was in his cabin at the time.
Chonghaejin Marine, which operated the ferry, has posted an apology on its website.
"We pray for the Sewol victims who lost their precious lives due to the accident," it said. "We prostrate ourselves before the victims' families and beg for forgiveness."
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CNN's Kyung Lah and K.J. Kwon reported from Jindo; CNN's Jethro Mullen reported and wrote from Hong Kong. CNN's Steven Jiang and Judy Kwon; and journalists Stella Kim and Jung-eun Kim contributed to this report.
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