Ten people have died and 16 are missing after a tourist boat capsized in the freezing, choppy waters off northern Japan on Saturday, the Coast Guard said on Sunday.
“We confirm the deaths of ten people following the sinking of the ship Kazu I,” a Coast Guard spokesman told AFP, adding that the search for the missing is continuing. The ten fatalities are seven men and three women.
Despite the bad weather forecast, the Kazu I left on Saturday morning with 26 people on board a flank of the Shiretoko Peninsula, which is a World Heritage Site for its unspoilt nature and lies northeast of the large Japanese island of Hokkaido in the Japan.
“It was obvious that the state of the sea was going to get worse and I told them not to go out,” the operator of another tour boat told NHK television. “Finally they left.”
The ship “Kazu 1” made a distress call at 1:15 p.m. local time on Saturday, warning that it was sinking with part tilting 30 degrees.
The Coast Guard arrived at the scene three hours later and are now heavily involved in the search alongside police and military helicopters and local fishing boats.
Two children on board
National television NHK showed footage of a helicopter and patrol boats surveying the peninsula’s edge, as well as lifeguards surveying a very rugged coastline with high waves smashing against the rocks.
The ship carried 24 passengers, including two children, and two crew members. Everyone wore life jackets, but the water temperature was two to three degrees Celsius during the day and indeed some fishing boats returned to port earlier due to the bad weather, according to local reports.
“The expectation was that the waves would keep getting bigger. I wouldn’t have gone out to sea in those conditions,” a person from the same local tourism industry assured Kyodo Agency on Saturday.
According to Japanese media, the Kazu I had already collapsed during an excursion last June when it hit the seabed near its home port.
The incident caused no injuries, but police launched a negligence investigation against the ship’s captain.
UNESCO declared the Shiretoko Peninsula a World Heritage Site in 2005 for its distinctive wildlife, including the endangered Star Sea Lion, as well as migratory birds and grizzly bears.
Tour boats are popular in the area and visitors come to see whales, birds and other wildlife.