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Supplied / Nine
Aerial photo of debris found in search of missing Gulf Livestock 1 crew.
A private search team that claims to have found possible signs of life on uninhabited islands near where the Gulf Livestock 1 freighter sank is urgently seeking help from the government as money for its aerial explorers runs out.
The ship, carrying 43 crew members and nearly 6,000 head of cattle, sank in the path of Typhoon Maysak in the early hours of September 2 after issuing a distress call.
The ship disappeared under the strong waves, forcing the 43 crew of the ship to board life rafts.
In the hours and days after the sinking, the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) rescued three survivors; one would die tragically.
RNZ
The Japanese Coast Guard canceled its full-time search for Gulf Livestock 1, the live export ship that disappeared in a typhoon in the East China Sea.
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Queensland vet Lukas Orda and New South Wales rancher William Mainprize, along with 38 others, have yet to be found after the official search operation was reduced to regular patrols on September 10.
New Zealanders Lochie Bellerby and Scott Harris are among those missing.
However, a privately funded search operation, run by family and friends of Mainprize, claims to have found signs of life on the Tokara Islands, a chain of 12 small islands off the coast of Japan.
Of the 12 islands, only seven are inhabited with an estimated population ranging from 40 to a total of 600 people throughout the archipelago.
RNZ
New Zealanders Scott Harris (left) and Lochie Bellerby were aboard the Gulf Livestock 1 cattle boat that capsized in a typhoon.
“We’ve been privately funding a search and rescue for two and a half weeks and narrowed it down to one area,” Harry Morrison, a search spokesman and close friend of Mainprize, told nine.com.au.
“We are finding a lot of debris from the boat, we have found two dead cattle on an island.
“We have found parts of a life raft, we have found life rings, we have found life jackets.”
Photos taken from the aerial search show debris from the freighter, life rafts and life jackets on the shores.
The search party has spent A $ 50,000 (NZ $ 54,000) of donated money on the fixed-wing flights and $ 75,000 on the helicopter flyover.
The expenses have reduced his more than $ 116,000 in funds raised to just $ 4000.
Supplied / Nine
Planes and helicopters have found life rings and life rafts during searches over islands after the sinking of Gulf Lifestock 1.
With another typhoon forecast, the group has received tomorrow and Saturday as crucial search days to revisit the islands.
However, they tragically do not have the cash to undertake the new searches.
Morrison said the next proposed search was hoping to cover the Amami Islands.
“There is an island … we basically found the roof of a life raft on an island and it appears that the plastic cover of the life raft … was removed,” he said.
“When we found this life raft, we contacted JCG and told them and got no response for them.
“Communication with the Japanese Coast Guard has been very limited.”
Morrison said the JCG “did not say yes, but did not say no” when the group asked if they could search parts of the islands.
Manuel Hernández Lafuente / Supplied
Gulf Livestock 1, which sank off the coast of Japan. He had 43 people, including two New Zealanders and nearly 6,000 cattle blows on board.
By September 10, the dedicated search had been canceled and the JCG was continuing to search for survivors, but only as part of its regular patrols.
The force of Typhoon Maysak and a second typhoon had hampered the search effort.
The Australian and New Zealand governments have offered assistance to Japan in the search, however Japan has not yet accepted the offer.
Another large-scale search for survivors is underway from California and off the coast of Japan.
“I was contacted to help with the hope of SAR on behalf of a [Australian] family member and we decided to work as a collaborative effort on behalf of all families, ”Shawn Alladio, president of the International Association of Rescue Instructors, told nine.com.au.
Alladio said the main goal of the search is to support families remotely and provide search and rescue expertise through his company’s bases in Japan and Taiwan.
“We are using EOS satellite images. No one has traveled to Japan due to the Covid quarantines. So all this is done through public assistance and our companies or other friends in the respective countries, ”he said.
“Our company in Taiwan has searched for debris along its shores in the countryside.”
This story was originally published on Nine news and republished with permission.
