Navy focuses
on draining fuel
from Ehime Maru

The ship's structural integrity
will help determine whether
to remove its fuel

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com

The Navy will decide within a week to 10 days whether it will drain the fuel tanks of the Ehime Maru of the 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel that may be still trapped within its hull.

That decision will be made by environmental engineers and Rear Adm. William Klemm, who is charge of the recovery operations.

Capt. Chris Murray, the Navy's supervisor of diving, yesterday said he believes "the structural integrity of the vessel" will be a factor in determining whether the remaining diesel fuel oil has to be taken off. The Ehime Maru was believed to have between 60,000 and 65,000 gallons of diesel fuel when it left Honolulu Harbor nearly nine months ago.

The Navy says it's surprised how very little of it leaked while the ship was raised 1,800 feet and moved 16 miles earlier this month. Navy officials now surmise that most of the diesel fuel was probably lost right after the collision with a U.S. submarine in February.

"Divers have taken soundings of the hull and have verified that the tanks are empty," Navy spokesman Cmdr. David Wray said last night said.

So far, nearly 85 percent of the 190-foot vessel has been searched and the bodies of eight of the nine missing people have been recovered, surpassing the Navy's estimation that only five to seven would be found.

Murray said the search for Uwajima Fisheries High School student Takeshi Mizuguchi, 17, will continue this week as the team of Navy and Japanese civilian divers begin to take personal items, such as clothing and other things, off the ship.

However, Murray said the divers remain optimistic even though the area -- the third-level crew's cabins -- has been already searched once. Mizuguchi was believed to have been caught at the deepest portion of the ship when it was struck Feb. 9 by the surfacing USS Greeneville, a Pearl Harbor-based nuclear submarine.

"We still have hope," Murray said.

Since Oct. 14, when the Ehime Maru was relocated from where it sank nine miles south of Diamond Head, more than 249 dives have been made into and around the Ehime Maru with the divers spending 107 hours in the water.

Murray said since the Ehime Maru was relocated to 115 feet of water three weeks ago, one mile south of the Honolulu Airport's reef runway, only 275 gallons of diesel fuel and lube oil have been "vacuumed" from within the ship.

Initially, the Navy planned to use a process called "hot tapping" to siphon the fuel tanks from outside the vessel. But Wray said last night the Navy may skip that procedure since it doesn't want to take the chance of weakening the hull if the tanks are nearly empty.

Yesterday, funeral services were held for Uwajima Fisheries High School teacher Hiroshi Makizawa, 37.

Besides Makizawa, the other victims who have been found and identified are fisheries school instructor Jun Nakata, 33; Hiroshi Nishida, 49, the first engineer; Toshimichi Furuya, 47, chief engineer; Hirotaka Segawa, 60, chief radio operator; and students Yusuke Terata, Toshiya Sakashima and Katsuya Nomoto, all 17.