Search team makes shocking find on island after ship sinks
Images taken during a two-week search have given hope to friends and family of the crew members still missing after a ship sank off the coast of Japan with two Australians on board.
An update posted on Tuesday on the GoFundMe page set up to raise money to fund the search said the images could show signs of life on islands off the south coast of Japan.
The ship carrying 43 crew members and thousands of cattle disappeared during a typhoon on September 2 and was later determined to have sank.
Since then search and rescue operations have been carried out looking for any survivors.
One of the new images shows what might be a canopy from a Viking life raft, which was the same used of the Gulf Livestock 1 ship.
The supposed canopy was spotted by a helicopter on Kuchinoshima, off the southwest coast of Japan, approximately 260km from the last known location of the ship.
On the island of Gajajima, an uninhabited island some 35km away from Kuchinoshima, a life ring and a blue boot was spotted on the same day.
Around the same area as the islands, there have been sightings of dead cows and ship debris.
The update explains these findings are inline with the drift particle maps marine experts put together following the ship capsizing on September 2.
“The findings leave friends and families of the remaining crew extremely hopeful that more signs of the Gulf Livestock 1 and the whereabouts of its missing crew can be found,” the GoFundMe says.
There are still four life rafts and one lifeboat from the ship which are still unaccounted for.
Harry Morrison and Elliot O'Hara, best friends of an Australian man on board the Gulf Livestock 1, Will Mainprize, set up the GoFundMe, and have worked with friends and family of the remaining Australian and New Zealand crew to fund the search and rescue operations.
The GoFundMe has raised over $126,000 and any future donations will go to the search and rescue aircraft to search the remaining Tokara Island group and the islands south of Amami,
The Tokara Islands are a chain of 12 islands off Japan, many are uninhibited, though there are more regions worth searching.
“If we receive further funds we would like to start searching the Izu Island group, south of Tokyo. All of which feature as possibilities by our marine experts & drift maps,” the GoFundMe says.
On board the Gulf Livestock 1 were 43 crew members and 6000 cows when the vessel sank - three were rescued - all Filipinos - but one later died after being found unconscious.
Thirty-six Filipinos, two New Zealanders and two Australians - Queensland vet Lukas Orda and NSW man Will Mainprize - remain missing.
With AAP
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