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A ship carrying 43 crew members and nearly 6,000 head of cattle from New Zealand to China sank after losing an engine in stormy weather in the East China Sea, the only crew member rescued so far told the coast guard. from Japan.
Gulf Livestock 1 sent out a distress call from west of Amami Oshima Island in southwestern Japan yesterday as Typhoon Maysak slashed through the region towards the Korean Peninsula, bringing strong winds, storm surge and torrential rain.
Japan’s coast guard said it had rescued a crew member while searching for the ship.
According to the crew member, the ship lost an engine before being hit by a wave and capsized, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said.
When the ship capsized, the crew was instructed to don life jackets.
Photographs provided by the Coast Guard showed a person in a life jacket pulled out of a rough sea in the dark.
Three boats, five aircraft and two divers were deployed to continue the search, the coast guard said.
The crew included 39 people from the Philippines, two from New Zealand and two from Australia, he added.
The Philippine government said it was coordinating with the Japanese coast guard as it searched for missing crew members before another typhoon struck the area.
Typhoon Haishen was in the Pacific Northwest, traversing the East China Sea into South Korea.
At least one person was reported to have died in South Korea after Typhoon Maysak made landfall this morning and strong winds broke a window in the southern city of Busan.
The Gulf Livestock 1 left Napier in New Zealand on August 14 with a cargo of 5,867 head of cattle bound for the port of Jingtangin Tangshan, China.
The trip was expected to last about 17 days, the New Zealand Foreign Ministry told Reuters.
The 139-meter Panamanian-flagged vessel was built in 2002 and the registered owner is Amman-based Rahmeh Compania Naviera SA, according to data from Refinitiv Eikon.
The ship’s manager is Hijazi & Ghosheh Co.
The New Zealand animal rights organization SAFE said the tragedy demonstrated the risks of the live animal export trade.
“These cows should never have been in the sea,” said campaign manager Marianne Macdonald.
“This is a real crisis, and our thoughts are with the families of the 43 crew members who are missing with the ship. But questions remain, including why this trade is allowed to continue.”
Last year, the New Zealand government launched a review of the country’s live animal export trade, worth around NZ $ 54 million in 2019, after thousands of animals exported from New Zealand and Australia died in transit.
A conditional ban on the export of live cattle is one of several options being considered, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said.
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