Search suspended for missing Japanese crewman

A search for a crewman reported missing from a ship in the Southern Ocean has been suspended.

The Japanese Coastguard reported that a 31-year-old Japanese national had fallen overboard from the whaling vessel Kyoshin Maru No 2, the Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) said.

The man was last seen at 5.30am (NZT) and failed to turn up for a watch at 7am, RCCNZ search and rescue officer Mike Roberts said.

An extensive search of the ship failed to locate him, and the vessel turned back to search for him.

RCCNZ was contacted by the Japanese Coastguard at 12pm and asked to take over co-ordination of the search.

Mr Roberts said the difficult decision to suspend the search had been made after a careful analysis of the likelihood of survival for the missing man, and the search and rescue options available to them.

"After speaking to the master of the vessel, we were able to establish the missing man was only wearing overalls when he went into the water. The water temperature is about 0degC and there is a 4m swell.

"The maximum survival time in those conditions is an hour."

Mr Roberts said given that they were contacted about six hours after the man went into the water, there was no likelihood he was still alive at that point.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force P3 Orion, the only aircraft with the range to reach the ship, would have taken 10 hours to get there, Mr Roberts said.

As the Kyoshin Maru No 2 was located at the operational limit of the aircraft, it would have only been able to spend 10 minutes searching for the missing man before turning home.

The ship had been searching for the missing man all day and had not found his body.

"While we are confident that all relevant information has been acted on, we will consider resuming the search should any new information come to light," Mr Roberts said.

Representatives from the Japanese Embassy had been in contact with RCCNZ and extended their thanks. Japanese authorities will advise the man's family.

- NZPA