Salvage would cost $40 million

Raising the Japanese fishing vessel Ehime Maru is possible but would take six months and cost about $40 million, the Navy announced yesterday in its first official report on potential salvage operations.

The Navy’s proposal calls for the vessel to be towed closer to shore into shallow water where it can be more easily examined for bodies of those who may have died on the vessel.

Bringing the Ehime Maru to shore, however, requires state and federal environmental review.

"Salvage of a vessel of this size from a depth of 2,000 feet is a complex and precedent-setting operation," according to a statement released yesterday by the Navy.

But "the engineering portion of the study has identified a potentially feasible salvage option," the report said.

The Ehime Maru sank within minutes Feb. 9 after the submarine USS Greeneville accidentally rammed it while surfacing about nine miles south of Diamond Head. Nine crew members are presumed dead.

The plan to raise the ship was based on a technical feasibility briefing for the Navy last Thursday by a Netherlands-based salvage company called Smit-Tak. Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, D.C., reviewed the information.

Relatives of the victims, as well as the Japanese government, have urged the Navy to bring the Ehime Maru to the surface so they could retrieve the bodies of their loved ones.

Yesterday, family members said they were encouraged by the Navy’s initial report that a salvage operation was possible. But they expressed concern about whether a salvage would damage Hawai‘i’s environment.

They want to find out whether the bodies of nine of their missing loved ones are trapped inside the ship.

Kazuo Nakata, father of Jyun Nakata, a missing teacher, said he would like investigators to explore the inside of the ship before raising it.

"Since the Ehime Maru accident, we received a lot of words of encouragement from Hawai‘i people," he said. "We don’t want to destroy Hawai‘i’s natural environment by our personal matter. So, we hope to find some way to salvage the ship without damaging Hawai‘i’s environment."

U.S. officials have talked for weeks about the possibility of raising the ship.

Special Envoy Adm. William J. Fallon, in Japan recently to meet with relatives, told them the Navy was "aggressively pursuing all available options." President Bush has also promised to see what the military could do about raising the vessel.

A special congressional appropriation would likely be needed to cover the $40 million cost.

But the task is also a challenge beyond anything the U.S. military has previously done. The 174-foot-long fishing vessel weighs 499 tons and has a huge gash in its hull.

Fallon said that the extreme depth is a factor. He said the Navy has raised vessels of this size from only less than 50 feet of water. He also told the relatives that the Navy’s deep ocean salvage capabilities are limited to objects weighing less than 1,000 pounds.

The Navy said it intends to keep the Japanese government abreast of all developments.

Staff writer Tanya Bricking and interpreter Toshi Erikson contributed to this report.

[back to top]