The Japan Coast Guard says that a Bahamas-registered marine research vessel has been spotted in Japan’s exclusive economic zone off the Senkaku Islands southwest of Okinawa.

According to the Coast Guard’s 11th Regional Headquarters, a surveillance aircraft found the Discoverer 2 ship sailing west in the EEZ some 127 kilometers northeast of Taishojima, one of the five islands in the Senkaku group, at around 8:20 a.m. Monday.  The ship was moving at some 7 kilometers per hour, pulling eight wire-like objects.

The same vessel conducted activities seen as research off Kubajima, another island in the Senkaku chain, on Nov. 16^th  last year, according to the coast guard headquarters.  The patrol airplane warned the ship by radio that research activities without permission are unacceptable in Japan’s EEZ.

According to Japanese Coast Guard, the ship left the Japanese EEZ, Tuesday, after speding about 24 hours within the EEZ.

On Monday, the vessel responded informing the coast guard that it belongs to the Shanghai municipal government’s offshore petroleum bureau.  The ship also claimed that its activities were conducted within Chinese waters with permission from the Chinese government.

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