Ship arrives to A Japanese ship carrying an underwater search vehicle arrived in Honolulu yesterday morning to support the salvage of the Japanese fisheries training ship Ehime Maru.
help salvage
Ehime Maru
The Japanese ship brings an
underwater vehicle to search
for the sunken craftKyodo News Service
The Kairei, a 4,628-ton deep-sea research ship commissioned by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, is carrying the unmanned vehicle Kaiko, which will be used to search the downed ship once it is moved to shallower water.
The Ehime Maru is lying on the seabed about 2000 feet under water some 9 miles off Diamond Head. The salvage operation will involve lifting the ship off the ocean floor and towing it to a shoal, where the Kaiko will be used to search for any remaining objects from the wreckage, according to Navy officials.
The unmanned submersible can operate at depths of up to 11,000 meters.
The full-scale lifting operation will begin possibly on Aug. 20, followed by the Kaiko's mission in early September, they said.
The Kairei, which belongs to an education ministry unit, the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center in Yokosuka, southwest of Tokyo, left Yokosuka on July 24.
The U.S. Navy requested that the Kairei be dispatched to support the salvage, which the Navy has contracted Dutch salvage company Smit Tak to perform.
The ministry is considering allowing representatives of bereaved families of the victims of the Ehime Maru on board the Kairei.
Nine people aboard the Ehime Maru are missing, including four students, in the February 9 accident that occurred when the nuclear-powered submarine USS Greeneville struck the ship while the sub was conducting an emergency surfacing drill.