Families briefed on Ehime Maru plans

	Video of Ehime Maru (QuickTime plug-in required)
•	Special report: Collision at Sea

Associated Press

TOKYO — U.S. Navy officials today briefed families in a small town in southwestern Japan on plans to salvage a Japanese fisheries training vessel that sank off the coast of Hawai‘i after a collision with a U.S. submarine, a local official said.

Nine people are believed to be entombed in the wreck of the Ehime Maru, a training vessel for apprentice fishermen, which sank after being rammed by the surfacing USS Greeneville on Feb. 9.

Their families have asked that the bodies be recovered from the boat, which rests in 2,000 feet of water. The Navy has contracted with private firms to tow the sunken vessel 12&Mac221; miles closer to shore so divers can search for victims’ remains and belongings.

Commander of the U.S. Navy in Japan, Rear Adm. Robert Chaplin, led a team of officials today to explain details of the recovery to families in the town of Uwajima, said government official Keisuke Kubo, in the prefecture’s capital of Matsuyama.

The Navy has said the estimated $40 million operation is expected to take three or four days.

It could begin as early as Monday. But Navy officials in Hawai‘i said they expect to complete the operation later in the 30-day period, which runs until Sept. 20, and that their progress depends on sea conditions.

Ryosuke Terata, whose 17-year-old son Yusuke was lost in the accident, was quoted by Kyodo news agency today as saying that he wants to recover even a small piece of his son’s clothes.

Navy officials could not be reached today to comment on the meeting. Master Sgt. Lea Gonzales, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military in Japan, referred all inquires concerning the Ehime Maru to U.S. Pacific Command in Hawai‘i.

Kubo said that the Navy delegation was to meet briefly with officials in Matsuyama tonight.