A total of seven Chinese ships convened Sunday in waters west of Australia's Perth to coordinate their search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

They are tasked with a rectangle-shaped search area located at about 26.34 degrees south latitude and 91.104 degrees east longitude, according to a Xinhua correspondent aboard one of the vessels Jinggangshan.

Other ships gathered include transport dock Kunlunshan, supply ship Qiandaohu, missile destroyer Haikou, which will be responsible for the search in the southern part of the newly-designated area, while Haixun 01, Nanhaijiu 115 and Donghaijiu 101 will search in the northern patch, Xinhua was told.

A total of ten planes and eight ships planned to participate in Sunday's search in an area about 1,850 km east of Perth, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said in a statement.

At noon, AMSA said its rescue coordination center has retasked a Royal Australian Air Force P3 Orion aircraft from the MH370 hunt to deal with an emergency distress beacon from a fishing vessel in the far southern Indian Ocean near Antarctica.

Meanwhile, an Australian warship fitted with a U.S. Navy black box detector is due to leave Perth later in the day. But it will reportedly take days for ADV Ocean Shield to reach the search area.

The MH370 flight has been out of anyone's sight since March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The battery on black box pingers attached to black boxes are certified to last 30 days.

Earlier Sunday, Australia's ex-Chief of the Defense Force Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston is named to lead a new Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC) based in Perth to coordinate the government's support for the search of MH370.

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