hawaii newspaper

Bush asks for $36 million for Ehime Maru salvage operation

LOS ANGELES, May 31 Kyodo

U.S. President George W. Bush has asked Congress for a $36 million budget to search and recover the bodies of nine Japanese who were lost at sea following the Feb. 9 collision of a U.S. submarine and the Japanese fisheries training ship Ehime Maru, a Hawaii newspaper said Thursday.

The Honolulu Advertiser said the money is intended to finance a U.S. Navy plan to move the 499-ton Ehime Maru, which sank after the collision, to shallower waters where divers can search the ship for the missing crew members, who were believed to have been trapped inside the ship.

The Ehime Maru sank shortly after colliding with the USS Greeneville off southern Oahu and lies about 600 meters of water.

Relatives of the missing Japanese, including four high-school students from Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture and two of their teachers, have urged Bush to salvage the ship and search for the victims.

The U.S. Navy plans to tow the Ehime Maru to waters 30 meters deep this summer so that divers can go inside the ship and search for the victims.

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