By Tanya Bricking
Advertiser Staff Writer

In the same spot where victims’ families threw flowers a week ago, Japanese researchers sent to map the ocean around the sunken Ehime Maru took a look today at the wreckage.

A piece of U.S. Navy deep-sea equipment, a remote-operated submersible called Deep Drone, gave six investigators from the Oceans Division of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs their first glimpse at the fishing vessel 2,003 feet underwater.

“Today’s Deep Drone picture was clearer, by far, than videotape I’ve seen before,” said Hiroshi Sato, Oceans Division director, who will report his findings to the Japanese government. “So, it cleared up some obscure points. Today’s investigation was very significant.”

More than two weeks after a U.S. submarine collided with a Japanese fishing vessel and left nine people missing and presumed dead, Sato said he was finally able to get an idea of the ship’s condition from something other than U.S. government reports.

He could see first-hand that the ship was mostly intact and that it had settled horizontally on the ocean floor in a stable position. Sato was able to get details about the slope and the depth of the base of the ship and will take the information back to his government before making it public.

While he said last week that it’s technically possible to raise the ship, Sato today said he must talk to Japanese officials before they determine how they might attempt to salvage it.

The Navy took Sato and his research team to the crash site today aboard the USS Salvor, a Pearl Harbor-based ship that controls the Deep Drone, which is recording video images of the exterior of the Ehime Maru.

The Navy is continuing its search mission at the request of the Japanese, and the Coast Guard is aiding with its 41-foot rescue boat and a rescue helicopter. So far, they have searched more than 35,602 square miles — an area about the size of Indiana — for wreckage. No bodies have been found.

The Navy continues to use another deep-sea submersible, the Super Scorpio II, which was the first to record images of the sunken ship. Aircraft also are on hand to continue searching.

Interpreter Toshi Erikson contributed to this report.

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