At least 10 dead among the passengers of the sunken tourist boat in northern Japan

Japan’s maritime authorities located this Sunday ten of the 26 people missing after the sinking of a tourist boat the day before, off the main northern island and major tourist attraction of Hokkaido, where there were notices of rough seas. All of them, seven men and three women, have been confirmed dead, after four of them were taken to hospital unconscious.

Ice can still be seen drifting in the region’s waters as late as March, and the water temperature would now be 2 to 3 degrees Celsius, according to an official from a local fishing cooperative. “Just a few minutes in that kind of water would start to cloud your consciousness,” he added.

Just a few minutes in that type of water would begin to cloud your consciousness

Official of a local fishing cooperative

The vessel, the Kazu 1, contacted the Coast Guard around 1:15 p.m. local time on Saturday asking for help because the ship’s bow was flooded and it was sinking. The last time they were heard, two hours later, the crew was reporting to the operating company that she was sinking at a 30-degree angle, Kyodo News reported.

Coastal authorities deployed six patrol boats, three planes and four helicopters after shortly after losing communication with the vessel, but as night fell no trace of either the passengers or the boat had been found. The Self-Defense Forces (army) joined the rescue efforts, which continued this Sunday.

Among the 26 people who were traveling on the ship at the time of the incident, 24 were passengers, including two minors, in addition to the captain and another member of staff, a deck crew member.

According to the company that operated the boat, with a capacity for 65 people, the Kazu 1 was scheduled to leave the port of Utorohigashi, in the city of Shari, at ten in the morning and sail around Cape Shiretoko, where it offers tours tourist attractions, before returning around one in the afternoon. The incident occurred while the ship was in waters near the Kashuni waterfall, a popular landscape on the peninsula, designated a natural world heritage site in 2005.

It was clear that the sea conditions were going to get worse and I told them not to go out

Operator of another tourist boat

The sea was rough in the area and the Japan Meteorological Agency had issued an alert for wind and strong waves with waves of between 3 or 4 meters in that region. “It was clear that the sea conditions were going to get worse and I told them not to go out,” an operator of another tourist boat told state broadcaster NHK. “But they left anyway,” he added.

Nearby fishing boats had returned to port before noon on Saturday due to strong waves and strong wind, according to a local fishing cooperative quoted by the Japanese Kyodo news agency. “The waves were expected to be higher and higher. I would not have thrown myself into the sea in these conditions,” a person from the same local tourism sector told the Kyodo agency on Saturday.

The Kazu 1 had already suffered another accident in June 2021, after being stranded in shallow water after weighing anchor. On that occasion, none of the 23 people on board were injured, as they were able to leave the boat and return to port on their own.

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