TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Wreckage from a fishing boat registered to New Taipei’s Shen-Ao Fishing Harbor has been found floating 150 km north of Ishigaki Island, Japan.
Japan’s Coast Guard reported that around 1:30 p.m. (12:30 p.m., Taiwan time) on Sunday (March 5), a Taiwan-registered fishing boat capsized and sank 150 kilometers north of Ishigaki Island, Okinawa Prefecture, according to UDN. No one was found, and a search and rescue mission was carried out.
The bow of the fishing boat, Hsin Chang Fa No. 88 (新長發88), was discovered seven days after the boat went missing, with Japanese search and rescue staff recovering the body of an unidentified fisherman. Authorities fear the Taiwanese captain and the rest of the six-person Indonesian crew may be lost at sea with their whereabouts unknown.
Upon receiving the report of a capsized vessel, Japan's Coast Guard launched a search and rescue operation. Taiwan’s Coast Guard followed by dispatching the CG-125 Lienchiang (連江艦) rescue vessel to assist the search in distant waters.
Hsin Chang Fa No. 88 departed from Badouzi Fishing Harbor at 11 a.m. on Feb. 27 to fish around the Diaoyutai Islands. According to past fishing records, the vessel typically fishes for 15 to 20 days at sea before returning to Badouzi.
The latest accident at sea comes after another vessel, Lien Sheng Fa (聯昇發) overturned on Feb. 26 with a Taiwanese captain and 15 Indonesian crew members still missing. A lifeboat from the 98-ton vessel was deployed and there is a chance the crew could still be alive.
And earlier on Feb. 17, another fishing vessel, Sheng Feng No. 128 (昇豐), went missing with one Taiwanese and five Indonesian fishermen going missing 767 km northwest of Palau.
