Washington (dpa) – An unmanned Japanese fishing trawler – washed to sea a year ago by the tsunami – is nearing the western Canadian coast, the largest piece in the flotsam still floating eastward from Japan. The ship was sighted floating about 120 nautical miles (224 km) off British Columbia's coast, according to reports Saturday by CNN and the Vancouver Sun. The vessel, which was outfitted for squid fishing, was discovered during a routine overflight by a Canadian military patrol, which sent the identification number from the hull of the ship to the Japan Coast Guard, CNN reported. The vessel had been moored at hard-hit Hachinohe City in Aomori Prefecture when the March 11, 2011 disaster struck Japan's east coast. It was still floating upright. “It looks fairly sound and has rust streak from being out there for a year,” Marc Proulx, the maritime coordinator of the rescue center in Victoria, British Columbia, told CNN. Canadian officials are concerned it could provide an obstruction to sea traffic. North America is the first major land barrier in the 8,000-km stretch of the Pacific Ocean that separates it from Japan. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/d6GYs Tags: Boat, Canada, Japan, Tsunami Section: East Asia, Latest News, North America
