Japanese Fishing Boat Sinks, Leaving 1 Dead, 6 MissingOne crewman died and six other went missing Saturday night after a Japanese fishing boat sank instormy waters off Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, Kyodo News reported Sunday.Six patrol boats and three aircraft were mobilized to search for the missing crew, the report said, quoting Japan Coast Guard officials. The 66-ton Kashima Maru lost radio contact at around 10:35 p.m. (local time) Saturday after radioing a fellow fishing boat that the trawler was leaking and about to sink, the report said. The Kashima Maru disappeared from a radar screen monitored by the fellow boat after the message, it said. Seven crew members were aboard the sunken ship. One crewman was rescued early Sunday morning and taken to a hospital but was pronounced dead there later. The Kashima Maru was fishing for codfish at the time of the accident, which may have been caused by a trawl net catching on a rock on the seabed, the report said. Winds of some 36 kilometers per hour and waves of up to three meters were reported at the time of the accident, according to the report. |
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