Rescue workers in Japan feared the sinking of the ship's crew and about 6,000 cattle, including 43 crew and 6,000 cattle, after sending a distress signal during a storm in the East China Sea on Thursday.
Japan's coast guard says a man has so far
found four planes and several planes in the search.
Sereno Adarvodo, a 45-year-old Filipino, a
member of the rescue crew, told Coast Guard that Bay Livestock 1, which had a
139-meter Panamanian flag vessel, collided with the engine after it was lost.
The cargo ship sent a letter of distress
from the island of Amami Oshima in southwestern Japan on Wednesday as Typhoon
Mesak en route to the Korean Peninsula in the region experienced strong winds,
strong seas and heavy rains.
The P-3C surveillance plane spotted
Eduardo, the ship's chief officer, on Wednesday night, Japan's coast guard
said. He had a vest in his life and was swinging up and down in the water.
A Coast Guard spokesman said that
according to Eduardo, who is able to walk and is in good health, the ship lost
its engine before it could be hit’ by a tidal wave.
When the plane crashed, the crew was
instructed’ to put on a life jacket. Eduardo said he jumped into the water and
did not see any other crew members before rescuing.
Gulf Livestock 1 was spotted’ on November
13, 2019 in Fremantle Harbor, Western Australia [File Brian W. Scott via Marine
Trophy.com/ via Handout Reuters]
The Coast Guard said the crew included 39
Filipinos, two New Zealanders and two Australians. Pictures provided by the
agency show a man in danger of being beaten’ from a beach in the dark.
Gulf Livestock 1 left Napier for New
Zealand on August 14 with 5,867 cattle and 43 crew bound for the port of Jing
tang in the Chinese city of Tangshan. The trip took about 17 days, the New
Zealand Foreign Ministry told Reuters.
Safe Animals for Exploitation (SAFE), an
animal rights organization in New Zealand, said the tragedy provided evidence
of the dangers of animal export trade.
"These cows should never have been in
the sea."
"This is a real crisis, and our
thoughts are with the families of the 43 missing crew members. But questions
remain, as to why this trade is allowed to continue."
Meanwhile, on the Korean Peninsula, a
woman died in the South Korean city of Bosan when a strong gust of wind smashed
the window of her apartment after Mesak's landslide.
More than 2,200 people were evacuated’ to
temporary shelters, and about 120,000 homes in the southern part of the
peninsula and Jeju Island were left’ without electricity.
The storm also brought heavy rain across
the north, and North Korean state media is broadcasting live the situation,
showing a journalist standing in a flooded street in the port city of Vinson.
But authorities lifted the storm warning
as the storm weakened and headed for China.
"The storm will pass through Mesan
and leave our country," a meteorological official told Korean Central
Television. "I don't expect any effects."
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