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Japanese Tsunami Ghost Ship Spotted Off Canadian Coast
An anonymous reader writes with an excerpt from an article in Inhabitat: "After Japan was hit with a devastating earthquake in March 2011, the Pacific nation was rocked by a massive tsunami that destroyed thousands of coastal houses, cars and boats and swept millions of tons of debris out into the ocean. Now, it looks like some of that debris could be approaching North America. Last week, an unmanned boat identified as a Japanese fishing vessel was spotted off the coast of Canada, indicating that after more than a year, some of that debris could still be on its way to American and Canadian shores."
That would be "last week" from last week when inhabitat got the story a week late? The boat was sighted March 20th.
Thats most likely uneducated speculation rather than fact. The meltdown didn't occur until well after the Tsunami swept everything out. The reality is all that debris was swept out to sea well before the plant melted down a week later. The radioactive materials leaked into the ocean weeks after the earthquake and would have been dispersed locally not on boats and stuff swept out by the tsunami.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but salvage law only begins to apply when a vessel has sunk.
Nope, from my understanding it also applies to ships in distress or which are sinking or those that have been abandoned.
"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it
Well, maritime salvage laws probably apply... so, yeah. Free boat!
Actually, now that I've done some googling, I'll have to retract my statement. No free boat for you!
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/519995/salvage
The objects salvaged always remain the property of the original owner, but the original owner is responsible for compensating the salvor (person doing the salvaging) for their time, effort, and the danger they went through to salvage the property. So if you find a 5 million dollar yacht that has slipped loose from its moorings and is adrift, you do not get to claim it. (Which is a good thing if it is your 5 million dollar yacht which your bone-head brother-in-law borrowed but then, like an idiot, forgot to drop anchor when he took the tender ashore to go to a party, get wasted, and find with some bubble-headed island girl half his age to spend the night with.) However, you can hold onto it until the owner pays you for the boat's retrieval.
Having said that, apparently the owner of the boat no longer wants it back, so the question of ownership is up in the air.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
The location, 150 miles south of the Haida Gwaii islands, is about 200 miles west of Vancouver. The currents along the Pacific coast of North America run southward, so the ship is going to drift into US waters soon. The U.S. will probably get stuck with the bill for towing the thing before it hits something. It's floating high in the water, so the hull is in good shape.
Nope. Almost as soon as a vessel is abandoned (and even before in some situations) it is potentially salvageable under various justifications, but if ownership can be determined there are rules for how the ship can be disposed of before any title can pass to a new owner. Basically, you can salvage it, but that doesn't mean you own it, although it does mean you are entitled to some compensation from the owner before they can retake possession of it. Even if the vessel is crewed salvage fees may still be owed. More details here.