Navy to pay damages for sinking Ehime Maru

Advertiser Staff and News Services

TOKYO — The U.S. Navy has agreed to pay damages to a local government over the sinking of a Japanese fishing boat by a U.S. submarine last year in Hawai'i waters, an official said today.

Nine of 35 students, teachers and crew aboard the Ehime Maru died when the USS Greeneville surfaced beneath the vessel Feb. 9, 2001, off O'ahu.

Officials from the Ehime prefectural (state) government, the ship's owner, and the U.S. Navy have held negotiations seven times since May, and recently reached a settlement, according to prefectural spokesman Hirofumi Nomura.

Nomura said the U.S. Navy had agreed to pay the Ehime government a total of $10 million in compensation, including the cost of building a new fisheries training vessel.

Separately, compensation talks continue between the U.S. Navy and families of the victims.

Navy officials at U.S. Pacific Fleet referred all calls to Washington, D.C.