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Lochie Bellerby went missing after Gulf Livestock 1, the ship he and fellow New Zealander Scott Harris were working on, sank with 43 people on board during a typhoon on September 2.
In a statement today, family spokeswoman Sue Sherburd said that while the family was “overwhelmed” by donated resources, support and generosity from individuals, they were “puzzled” by the New Zealand government’s inaction .
“The Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister say they are doing ‘everything we can do’, but this is not what is happening on the ground or, if so, the family does not know.
“It seems that we have no choice but to be prepared to mount a locally organized private rescue and response plan.”
Yesterday, an independent satellite swept 15 km wide in the area capturing high definition images, he said.
The satellite will pass again today.
“If the satellite search identifies ‘objects of interest’, we remain unclear what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and the government in general plan to do to mobilize quickly.
Offers of support from interested New Zealand and Australian organizations and individuals who wanted to help advance the search came “quickly and forcefully”.
A MFAT spokeswoman said the ministry continued to provide “all possible assistance” to the family and kept them updated regularly.
” We know that this is an extremely stressful time for the families of the two missing New Zealanders.
“Our New Zealand embassy in Tokyo remains in close contact with the Japan Coast Guard and is passing any new information obtained by the family to the Japanese authorities.”
Satellite organizations, Japanese translators, marine experts, and local Japanese fishing villages had also been searching the shores on their boats.
