Despite forecasted bad weather, the ship had set sail on Saturday morning with 26 people on board.
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Ten people died and sixteen are missing in the sinking of a tourist boat in northern Japan on Saturday April 23. The ten bodies found after the sinking of the Kazu I are those of seven men and three women, said a spokesman for the coast guard, adding that the search is continuing.
Despite forecasted bad weather, the ship set sail on Saturday morning with 26 people on board. It was to run along a side of the Shiretoko Peninsula, an unspoiled natural area northeast of Japan’s large northern island of Hokkaido. “It was clear that the state of the sea was going to get worse, and I told them not to go out, another tourist boat operator told state broadcaster NHK. But they went anyway.”
The crew sent out a distress call at 1:13 p.m. local time, reporting that the boat was sinking, with its bow tilted at 30 degrees. The Coast Guard only arrived on the scene after three hours, and an intense search has been going on ever since. The police, Japan Self-Defense Forces (SDF) and local fishermen are also taking part in the operations, both sea and air.