Ship with 43 crew goes down in typhoon
Livestock carrier Gulf Livestock 1, with 43 crew members (39 from the Philippines and two each from Australia and New Zealand), was carrying 5,867 live cattle from New Zealand to Jingtang in Tangshan, China. It left New Zealand on August 14. The Panamanian-registered, 11,947-tonne ship was west of Amami Oshima island in south-western Japan as Typhoon Maysak lashed the area with strong winds and heavy seas. It sent a distress call from the East China Sea at 1.20am on Wednesday September 2 as heavy rains and winds caused by a typhoon battered the region.
The cattle were being exported by the Australia-headquartered Australasian Global Exports, which specialises in live animal exports and owns quarantine facilities in China. Several unions have reported problems with this company in Australia. New Zealand's Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) temporarily suspended live cattle export applications after the vessel went missing. Only two survivors have been found so far, both Filipino nationals.
Another man who was found floating face down in the water on Friday morning was later pronounced dead. This means 40 people are still unaccounted for, including two Australians. Another system, Typhoon Haishen, is making the continuing search effort extremely difficult. Earlier this week Japanese authorities found an empty lifeboat, believed to be from the Gulf Livestock 1, but it did not appear as if anyone had been in it. This morning, almost a week after the vessel sent out a distress signal, it was announced that the Japanese are scaling down the search effort,
Read more: What we know about the capsized live export ship Gulf Livestock 1 and the search for survivors off Japan and Japanese authorities find empty lifeboat in search for missing Gulf Livestock 1 crew ABC news online