Ehime Maru now The Navy's historic move of the Ehime Maru was completed yesterday when the 830-ton Japanese fisheries training vessel was brought to rest on the sandy, crushed-coral sea floor near the Honolulu Airport's reef runway.
at rest off runway
The Navy's difficult task is a
success, and divers will
search for the missing bodiesBy Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.comThe 16-mile move was completed at 3:22 p.m. The 190-foot Ehime Maru now rests in 115 feet of water one mile south of the runway, lying parallel to the reef runway, its bow facing Ewa. There are no plans to moor it with anchors or other wires.
At sunrise today, the 400-foot Crowley 450 barge, which will serve as the Navy's diving platform for the next 33 days, will leave Pearl Harbor and take its station above the Ehime Maru. The Navy anticipates about a four- to eight-hour operation to firmly anchor the Crowley barge before divers will be allowed in the water to do the first human survey of the ship's exterior.
The Navy has declined to say when the 60 Navy and six Japanese civilian divers will enter the vessel to search for nine missing people and extract personal remains.
Of the nine missing people, the Navy does not expect to recover the remains of more than seven. Several of the students are believed to have been in a student mess room on the Ehime Maru's third deck in the bowels of the ship when the attack submarine USS Greeneville collided with it shortly after lunch on Feb. 9.
Navy officials said the first dive into the Ehime Maru's cabins is dependent of how much material has to be removed from the ship first.
Hisao Onishi, 59, and captain of the Ehime Maru, said he and Tetsuo Hama, 46, a seaman on the vessel, will help the Navy search for the four teenage boys and their two teachers from Uwajima Fisheries High School and three missing crewmen.
The Navy made maritime history yesterday when it successfully raised the 830-ton Ehime Maru from a depth of 2,000 feet and moved it 16 miles. Navy's Herculean effort succeeds
>> Midnight Saturday: The Rockwater 2 oil research vessel, with the Ehime suspended below it, passes the last hurdle: a 1,300-foot climb up a reef shelf.
>> 12:25 p.m. Sunday: The Rockwater 2 resumes transit to the shallow-water recovery site one mile south of the reef runway.
>> 3:22 p.m. Sunday: The Rockwater 2 sets the Ehime Maru on the coral bottom in 115 feet of water.
>> This morning: The Crowley 450 barge is scheduled to set sail for the reef runway recovery site and position itself above the Ehime Maru. Navy divers will begin an exterior survey of the Ehime Maru.
They will coordinate their efforts from the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force submarine rescue ship Chihaya.
All of the divers will be wearing helmets equipped with cameras that will beam pictures to monitors and video recorders on the Crowley.
The Navy will not discuss at this point how it will handle human remains it may encounter. However, it did seek the help of University of Hawaii religion professor George Tanabe, who briefed the divers and others who will work on the barge on Japanese customs and Buddhist philosophy.
Rear Adm. William Klemm, head of recovery operations, told Tanabe that he was concerned that although the operation could be a technical success, an offhanded gesture or miscue in protocol could inadvertently offend Japanese families.
"There is a significant sense of accomplishment" among the Rockwater 2's crew and Navy officials at getting the operation this far, said Lt. Cmdr. Gregg Baumann, Naval Sea Systems relocation manager. "There is a sincere feeling of pride in the work they have been doing."
However, Baumann cautioned that the Navy now moves into a "more dangerous phase" as it puts divers into the water. Until now the Navy has relied on mechanical devices, such as the remotely operated vehicles or ROVs, because humans cannot operate at depths of 2,000 feet.
The Navy said that so far, using cameras on its ROVs, it has not been able to get a clear picture of the hole in the Ehime Maru's hull caused by the sail of the Greeneville.
However, Baumann said the Navy believes that despite the numerous times the Ehime Maru has been lifted and moved since the operation began in August, there has been "no significant impact to the structural integrity" of the vessel.
The Navy said an oil sheen was discovered at sunrise yesterday morning after the Rockwater 2, the civilian salvage vessel that moved the Ehime Maru, had spent the night about a mile from the shallow-water site. Oil skimmers and other collection equipment were deployed, but most of the diesel fuel had either dissipated through evaporation or had been carried away by the currents.
There is still "a small trickle" of diesel fuel leaking though the Ehime Maru's smokestacks, which has been occurring since the vessel was sunk eight months ago.