Officers from the Nago Fire Department and Nago Coast Guard Station found the bodies of two missing fishermen off Yagaji Island in the Haneji Inland Sea Monday morning.

The two had been missing since midnight of Mar. 30. The pair were identified as 61-year-old Yasushi Kamiyama from Haebaru and 59-year-old Kunio Chinen 59 from Nishihara.

The two had taken their boat to a rock off Yagaji island to fish from shore on the night of the 30th, but had lost all contact after a cellphone call earlier.

According to officials at the Coast Guard, they received a call from a staff of a fishing shop Sunday night reporting that Kamiyama and Chinen had not returned from their fishing trip yet as they had planned. The Coast Guard with the aid from Nago Fire Department Rescue Team started to search the missing two, and found Kamiyama’s body about 1 km off Yagaji island at 8 a.m. A rescue diver recovered Chinen’s body about 2 km east of the spot where Kamiyama’s body had been found about two hours later.

Both dead fishermen did not wear life jackets, and were already dead when their bodies were found. The Nago Coast Guard officials suspect the heavy rain in the region in the morning of Mar. 3 contributed to the accident.

• 
• NO DATA