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Whale vs Ferry - People & Whales Injured
UPDATE: 88 hurt; 36 hospitalized; 12 seriously
See also:
BBC REPORT Last Updated: Sunday, 9 April 2006 |
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A high-speed Japanese ferry has collided with what is thought to be a whale, leaving 49 people injured - 13 in a serious condition.
The two-deck ferry, carrying more than 100 passengers and crew, was near the city of Kagoshima on the southern island of Kyushu when it happened.
The Coast Guard said it received a distress call from the boat shortly after 1800 local time (0900 GMT).
Ships in the area often collide with whales, a ferry company spokesman said.
Seven of the most seriously injured passengers have been taken back to land by rescue boat, a coast guard official said.
He said the other passengers remained on the ferry, which was not in danger of sinking.
Ferry spokesman Yukinori Chosa said the impact caused many people to fall over and hit their backs.
The ferry is now unable to move on its own and will have to be towed back to port, he told the AFP news agency.
Officials believe the boat collided with a whale or another large sea animal. |
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| Rescue workers carry out an injured passenger from the Toppy-4 ferry (behind R) at Yamakawa port in Ibusuki, southern Japan April 9, 2006. The ferry, with 109 passengers and crew members aboard, collided with an unidentified object, possibly a whale, in waters off Kagoshima Prefecture on Sunday evening, leaving 49 passengers injured, 13 of them seriously, local media reported. /Kyodo |
Japanese ferry strikes object, perhaps a whale; 93 aboard hurt
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Knight Ridder News Service
Article Last Updated: 04/11/2006 |
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KAGOSHIMA, Japan - More than 90 people were injured when a hydrofoil hit an unidentified marine object off Cape Sata on Sunday, a Japan Coast Guard spokesman said.
According to the 10th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters in Kagoshima, 88 of the 109 passengers and five of the six crew members on the high-speed ferry Toppy 4 were hurt. Of those, 12 were seriously injured. Thirty-six, including some crew members, were hospitalized.
Coast Guard officials started Monday morning inspecting the water around the accident site and are expected to question Koichi Akase, the ferry's captain, who was hospitalized.
According to a spokesman at Kagoshima Shosen, which operates the ferry, Toppy was cruising near its maximum speed of 50 mph at the time of the accident.
''Something hit the hydrofoil's port stern quarter, and the boat plunged forward,'' Akase was quoted by the spokesman as saying. ''There was no driftwood in sight, so I think it's highly likely that Toppy hit some kind of marine creature like a whale.''
The coast guard dispatched six patrol vessels and two helicopters after it received an emergency call from a passenger on board Toppy at about 6 p.m. Sunday. The 12 seriously injured people and infants were transferred from the ferry to two patrol boats. The two boats arrived in Ibusuki by 9:50 that evening.
The patrol ship Sendai towed Toppy, which was unable to continue under its own power, and the remaining 85 passengers on board reached Yamagawa Port in Ibusuki at 11:30 p.m.
Four Toppy ferries ply the route that connects Kagoshima, Tanegashima island and Yakushima island 13 times daily. Kagoshima Shosen began operating the service in 1989.
The ferry has a hydrofoil at its bow and stern that lift the boat's hull above the surface of the water. Though the boat is equipped with an underwater speaker that emits a sound whales are supposed to dislike, it is not effective against all kinds of whales.
High-speed ferry service foiled by whale collisions
March 27, 2006 http://www.travelserver.net/travelpage/ubb-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=14&t=000269
NAGASAKI, -- High-speed hydrofoil ships ferrying passengers between Fukuoka and Busan, South Korea are increasingly running into whales near the Tsushima Strait -- a problem some fear will put them out of business.
The operators of the ships are trying to pinpoint the exact cause of the accidents, but some experts say they may be unavoidable.
Some say the collisions are caused when whales rapidly surface from deep water; others say females raising calves can't avoid the fast-moving ships.
The international ferry service is jointly run by Kyushu Railway Co. (JR Kyushu) and South Korea's Miraejet Co. The companies make five round trips a day.
"Jetfoil" boats have hydrofoils mounted in the front and back that allow them to skim the waves at more than 80 kph as their hulls float 2 meters above the surface.
According to JR Kyushu, there have been six collisions involving jetfoils since December 2004 -- four this year alone.
In South Korea, about 30 people were injured when the Kobee, a high-speed boat, was apparently hit by a whale.
Tsutomu Tamura, head of the Ecosystem Section at the Institute of Cetacean Research, said beaked whales feed deep in the sea and may have failed to dodge the boats when they came to the surface for air.
Akira Takemura, a professor at the Faculty of Fisheries, Nagasaki University, said the frequency of collisions in the spring is something the companies should pay attention to.
"Spring is the time when humpback whales that have raised their calves in waters near Okinawa and Taiwan travel north through the Tsushima Strait," he said. "It is possible that humpback whales traveling with calves, which move relatively slowly, may have collided with the boats."
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