February 28, 2008
The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology

The Remotely Operated Vehicle HYPER-DOLPHIN spotted a manmade object during the research on the collision between MSDF DDG ATAGO and a fish boat SEITOKU MARU being carried out by the Research Vessel NATSUSHIMA belongs to the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC; Mr. Yasuhiro Kato, President).

About objects

Photograph 1

(1) Location :

Location : North Latitude 34.31, East Longitude 139.49, Water depth 1,845m (Please refer to Fig.1)

Photographed date and time

: 10:39 February 28, 2008

JAMSTEC provided the information immediately to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and we heard that the MEXT provided the information to the Crisis Center in the Prime Minister’s Office, the Japan Coast Guard and the Ministry of Defense. Currently, we have not informed if the Japan Coast Guard makes any decision about relation between the found object and the accident.

Fig.1 Research Area
: location of the object spotted and photographed
: research area

Photograph 1: nd object - approximately 3m long
(North Latitude 34.31, East Longitude 139.49, Water Depth 1,845m)
Images of display screens on-board NATSUSHIMA taken by a digital camera.
Upper: image with CCD camera Lower: image with HDTV.

Contacts:

Shinji Oshima, email: press@jamstec.go.jp
Manager, Planning Department Press Office
The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology