Tokyo, 6 January, /AJMEDIA/
Two people died, and three others were missing after a fishing boat with 20 people aboard capsized off Ibaraki Prefecture in eastern Japan early Monday, the local coast guard office said.
Seventeen people, including five Indonesians, were rescued after the 80-ton Ohama Maru No. 8 capsized at around 2:05 a.m. off a port in Kashima.
Two Japanese men in their 50s and 60s were later pronounced dead, with three others in their 40s to 70s still missing after being thrown into the sea, according to the coast guard office.
The Japan Coast Guard deployed several patrol ships, aircraft, and a special rescue team to the area, working alongside local fishermen to search areas where oil was spotted floating on the surface.
However, with the vessel presumed sunk, no significant clues have been found so far.
According to officials of the Otsu fisheries cooperative to which the boat belonged, the ship departed Otsu port in Ibaraki on Sunday afternoon for its first sardine fishing operation of the year as part of a three-vessel fleet.
The local coast guard quoted a rescued crew member as saying the boat gradually began to tilt after its fishing nets became overloaded with a large catch. Authorities are investigating whether the weight of the fish caused the vessel to capsize as the crew pulled up the nets.
Weather conditions were reportedly calm at the time.