TOKYO –
A tourist boat with 26 people on board went missing in the icy waters of northern Japan on Saturday, hours after a distress signal was sent that it was sinking, the Coast Guard said.
No survivors have been found after more than 10 hours of intensive search, including six patrol boats, five planes and divers. The Coast Guard said the search would continue overnight.
The 19-ton Kazu 1 made an emergency call in the early afternoon, saying the ship’s bow was flooded and began to sink and tilt as it traveled off the west coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula in northern Hokkaido, the Coast Guard said.
The tourist boat has since lost contact, according to the Coast Guard. It is stated that the boat was carrying 24 passengers, including two children and two crew.
The average April sea temperatures in Shiretoko National Park are just above zero.
An employee of the ship’s operator, Shiretoko Pleasure Cruise, said he could not comment as he had to answer calls from worried families of passengers.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who attended a two-day water summit in Kumamoto, southern Japan, canceled Sunday’s program and had to return to Tokyo to deal with the missing boat, NHK reported.
High waves and strong winds were observed in the area around noon, according to a local fishing association. Japanese media reported that the fishing boats returned to the port before noon due to bad weather.
NHK said it had a high-altitude warning of up to 3 meters (9 feet).
Yoshihiko Yamada, a professor of marine science at Tokay University, said the boat may have been stranded after being thrown around in high waves and damaged, flooded and possibly sunk. A tourist boat of this size usually does not carry a lifeboat, and passengers probably would not be able to jump from a fast-sinking ship with the windows closed to protect them from strong winds.
In an interview with TBS television, Yamada said it was unlikely that the boat had been hit by a whale.
Cold temperatures and strong winds can cause hypothermia and put passengers in difficult survival conditions, according to Jun Abe, vice president of the Society for Water Rescue and Survival Research. “It’s a very serious condition, especially when it’s wet,” Abe told TBS.
According to the operator’s website, the tour takes about three hours and offers scenic views of the west coast of the peninsula, including nature and animals such as whales, dolphins and brown bears. The national park is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List and is known as the southernmost region where floating sea ice can be seen.
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