The ship that floated across the Pacific after Japanese tsunami
The owner of an empty Japanese fishing vessel that drifted across the Pacific after last year’s tsunami says he does not want the boat back, according to a Japanese Coast Guard official.
The rusty, 150-foot ship was spotted in Canadian waters last week, 4,703 miles away from where it was originally moored, floating towards Vancouver, British Columbia.
Coastguard spokesman Masahiro Ichijou said the ship belonged to a fishing company in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island.
Officials contacted the 60-year-old owner in the city of Hakkodate. He said he had cancelled the boat registration shortly after the disaster last March, thinking the vessel was lost forever.
‘Usually boat owners are not allowed to cancel registration until they properly dispose or dismantle it,’ said Mr Ichijou. ‘But with the disaster last year, we made an exception. This is an unprecedented case.’
It was docked in the Aomori Prefecture when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit March 11, unleashing a catastrophic tsunami that killed nearly 20,000 people.
The 150-ton boat was spotted nearly a year later on March 20, during a routine patrol by a Canadian Forces aircraft.
. ‘We have a boat with no owner, and we’re trying to determine how to move forward.’
Mr Ichijou said standard practice requires countries where marine trash and debris are found to pick up the cost for disposal.
The earthquake, which struck about 230 miles northeast of Tokyo, was the largest in the country’s history.
According to the official toll, the disasters left 15,839 dead, 5,950 injured, and 3,642 missing.