POINT OF VIEW/ Homare Sakuma: Private operators offer safety lessons to MSDF

Concrete measures are needed not only to reduce the risk of accidents at sea, but also to remember the father and son who went missing after the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Aegis destroyer Atago rammed their fishing boat Seitoku Maru on Feb. 19.

For 17 years, I served as a mate and captain of long-distance ferries larger than the Atago on six routes between Hokkaido and Kagoshima Prefecture. During that time, we came across fleets of fishing boats practically every night.

I felt sometimes my blood freeze as we experienced close shaves. Once, when a fellow vessel collided with a fishing boat off the Boso Peninsula, I took part in searching for missing crew.

According to the Third Regional Headquarters of the Japan Coast Guard, the Atago was moving at a speed of 10 knots (18.5 kph) at the time. It was slower than 12 knots, the usual speed at which large vessels navigate within ports and legally designated seaways. The Atago was on its way back to the MSDF Yokosuka base after completing a military exercise in Hawaii.

Usually, the shortest route for vessels returning from Hawaii is to advance southward from Inubozaki at the tip of the Choshi Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture along the Pacific coast of the Boso Peninsula. However, the Atago was approaching the entrance to Tokyo Bay from the south. It probably wanted to avoid waters where traffic is heavy with incoming and outgoing ships.

Judging from its speed and course, I don't think the Atago was totally neglecting safety.

However, as far as I know, no waters in the world are more congested than Japanese coastal waters. I have also navigated overseas routes and the only exception is the time I had to steer a vessel threading through a large number of fishing boats in the Bay of Biscay along the north coast of Spain.

In waters off the Boso Peninsula, groups of fishing boats leave port en masse before dawn. They also return all together. The congestion is not unique to the Boso Peninsula. I once counted the number of fishing boats that appeared on radar one early morning in Kii Suido, the strait that runs between the eastern coast of Tokushima Prefecture and the western coast of Wakayama Prefecture. It topped 1,000 in just two hours.

I heard that many fishing boats and small steel boats carrying building materials use automatic steering systems. I also heard that on such small vessels, it is common for a single crew member to be on watch for six to eight straight hours.

According to a 2006 survey by the Marine Accident Inquiry Agency, nearly 40 percent of accidents at sea were caused by "inadequate lookout" and "dozing off."

According to investigators, 10 crew members were on watch on the Atago's bridge at the time of the accident. It appears that all possible safety measures were in place. But actually, having as many as 10 people on a narrow bridge may have caused a momentary lapse in judgment needed to avoid the accident.

On the ferries I boarded, usually two crew members stayed on watch on four-hour shifts.

On merchant vessels, mates operate the vessel's engine with the movement of a single lever at their will. By comparison, the operation procedure of an SDF warship where orders are relayed from the bridge to the engine room is much more complex. Could it be that the complexity had anything to do with the accident?

What about equipment? I was surprised to learn on television in late February that active SDF warships are still equipped with "binocular radar," a device that is no longer used on merchant vessels. Color radar used on large merchant ships shows other vessels in color as well as their tracks. The system that allows the user to instantly recognize the movements of many ships at once is an inexpensive product that is readily available on the market.

In order to prevent nighttime collisions, I think SDF vessels should also light themselves up. The Law for Preventing Collisions at Sea bans vessels from burning lights other than those required by law. But on passenger ships, lights naturally leak from cabins. Container vessels that serve international routes can be as long as 400 meters. They turn on a string of lights from stem to stern to avoid collision.

I think the congestion of Japanese coastal waters far exceeds the limit envisioned by the Law for Preventing Collisions at Sea. Under such circumstances, I urge the Defense Ministry to take into consideration the know-how of operating large vessels developed by the private sector.

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The author is a former captain of a long-distance ferry.(IHT/Asahi: March 28,2008)