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First Body Found Inside Ehime Maru

Search Expected To Last One Month

UPDATED: 6:35 p.m. HST October 16, 2001

An underwater U.S. Navy camera searching the Ehime Maru discovered a body inside the wreckage of the sunken Japanese fishing trawler Tuesday.

Navy officials said that they hope to retrieve the body using divers either before sunset Tuesday. They said that it will be standard operating procedure to wait until the end of the day to retrieve bodies, in order to notify proper authorities and next of kin.

Ehime Maru The discovery came less than 24 hours after divers began surveying the vessel, which was moved from its original position 10 miles south of Diamond Head over the weekend to its new resting place one mile off the Honolulu Airport reef runway.

U.S. and Japanese divers are expected to search the vessel for the next 33 days, according to the Navy. Their primary mission will be to extract the bodies of the nine men and boys who are presumed to have gone down with the ship (pictured, right) when it was struck by the submarine USS Greeneville on Feb. 9.

Officials have said that they expect to find between five to seven bodies.

The Navy disclosed Tuesday that they have found as many as a dozens birds stained by oil, possibly from the Ehime Maru wreckage. Environmental teams have been monitoring the area for possible oil leaks from the 830-ton vessel, which was carrying 45,000 gallons of diesel fuel and 1,200 gallons of thicker lubricating oil when it sank.

Ehime Maru debrisDivers also reported encountering siginifcant debris in the passages of the ship (pictured, left). In addition, large amounts of fishing line will have to be cut away to make the diving operations safer.

The Navy placed a diving support barge above the wreckage Monday, which now sits in 115 feet of water, easily reachable by divers.

In addition, two pairs of scuba divers from a Navy Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit surveyed the exterior of the vessel, removing hazards and installing devices to measure the ship's incline. They also installed ladders that will be used to climb aboard the wreckage.

Once the search is completed, the Ehime Maru will be moved once again to a site 16 miles south of Barbers Point, where is will be laid to rest in 6,000 feet of water.


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