The Italian Coast Guard say they've pulled nearly 200 bodies from the water so far.
But as the search continues, stories of survivors have emerged.
Only 155 African refugees, mainly from Eritrea, survived what has been dubbed Italy's worst migrant shipwreck. Some 500 people were believed to have been on board the vessel when it sank.
Survivor German Nagass, 30, says he'll never forget what he saw.
"For five hours we were floating, using the dead bodies of our companions. There is nothing worse than this. There were many children. There was a mother with her four children, a mother with an infant, all lost at sea. My mind is scarred and in a terrible condition."
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The traumatic first-hand accounts are helping to build a picture of why this boat sank with most of its passengers entombed below the deck.
There has been criticism, echoed by survivors, that more was not done to help the migrants.
Eighteen-year-old Hamid Mohammad swears that an Italian vessel spotted them in trouble off the coast, but did nothing.
"The Italians' boat started circling around us. They circled our boat twice, then just went away. That's when people started to panic. The Captain said we needed to start a fire. He gathered some clothes and bed sheets and lit them. But his container of benzene exploded. People were screaming as the boat capsized."
Only a lucky few were eventually rescued by Italian fishermen and the Coast Guard.
The authorities have been criticised for filming the rescue instead of saving more lives.
Twenty-three-year-old survivor Abrahalli Amare says his dreams of a better life in Europe now have been shattered.
"We left our country because of hardship," he says. "So that we could live in peace and help our families. But we have found this bitter sadness. It was so unexpected, so disturbing. And now we can't think of anything else."
At the port, recovery teams are filling trucks with the bodies that they are still pulling from the sea, as the cost of the tragedy is still being counted.
