HONOLULU -- U.S. Navy divers and salvage experts Sunday toured a sister ship of the Japanese fishing vessel Ehime Maru in an effort to familiarize themselves with the sunken ship, which sits in 2,000 feet of Pacific Ocean water south of Diamond Head.

Navy officials are hoping that by closely examining the layout and design of the Kagawa Maru, which is piered at Honolulu Harbor, salvage divers can gain insight as to how to move the Ehime Maru to shallower water in an unprecedented salvage operation.

Nine men and boys are presumed to have gone down with the Ehime Maru (pictured, right) on the afternoon of Feb. 9 when it was struck from below by the submarine USS Greeneville, which was performing an emergency surfacing maneuver. Their bodies are believed to be still inside the ship.

"I think there's a very high likelihood that there will be remains to be recovered here," Rear Adm. William Klemm said. "We do know where all the folks were last seen. And so we will have a pretty good idea of where we need to go look."

EHIME MARU Read The Navy's Entire Environmental Assessment

The technology to be used in the recovery operation has been employed elsewhere, but not for salvaging ships, according to the Navy. Equipment used in oil field exploration will be one of the technologies utilized.

Salvagers hope to use massive hoisting straps to lift the Ehime Maru to shallower water. The straps would be put in place by a remote-controlled submersible under the Navy's plan.

The $40 million plan calls for the Ehime Maru to be taken to waters off the reef runway, where Navy divers will search the vessel for the missing crewmen.

"I have to tell you, as we have told all of the folks all along, there is some probability that we will not successfully relocate the Ehime Maru to shallow waters," Klemm said. "However, the Navy is a can-do service, and our plan is to execute. We're going to do this."

The salvage operation is scheduled to begin in August. Navy officials said that they hope to spend about one month rigging the ship, three to four days transporting it and about 30 days combing the interior of the ship.