Tatao Hiyomori

As part of the Long Term Missing Persons Project (a project instigated in 2019 to clear a backlog of cases relating to people who had been in Western Australia at the time of their reported disappearance) an inquest was held on 21 January 2020 at the Coroner’s Court in Perth to investigate the disappearance of Tatao Hiyomori (33 years of age) on or about the 8 January 1986, at sea approximately 30 nautical miles south-west of Rottnest Island.

Hiyomori was one of the engineering crew aboard the Japanese fishing vessel Kiyo Maru 5 which had been at sea fishing for sashimi quality blue fin tuna since April 1985 with two returns to Fremantle for supplies. The Kiyo Maru 5 left the port of Kochi-Ken in Japan at 5.30am on 11 April 1985 to fish for tuna out of the port of Fremantle and approximately 200 nautical miles off the coast. The vessel was away from Japan for long periods of time and the crew worked a 3 day rotation of 18 hours for the first day and 12 hours each for the next 2 days. The inquest was advised that conditions in the engine room were cramped and hot and it was quite understandable that crew would spend as much time as possible on their time off up on deck.

There were no statements from the crew and the only available facts were from the translated ship’s Log Book which fortunately was detailed enough to gain a good insight into what transpired.

The Kiyo Maru 5 left its fishing ground on 4 January 1986 to reprovision in Fremantle. It was during this journey at around 11.00am on 8 January that the Master was informed by deck crew, Tetsumi Nishino, that engineering crew Hiyomori was not on board. It was confirmed that he was last seen at 6.00am during a change of shift when he exchanged beds with another crew member, Yoshitaka Iwama. The rest of the crew woke around 7.30am and assumed Hiyomori was asleep until they realised that he was missing at around 11.00am.

Once it was confirmed after a search of the vessel that Hiyomori was not on board it was assumed that he must have fallen overboard between 6.00am and 7.30am. The Master ordered the vessel conduct an ocean search retracing its route for the preceding 6 hours.

The Master informed the ship’s agent in Fremantle and continued searching until 9.00pm on 10 January when he received a cable from the family of Hiyomori advising him to cease the search, the Kiyo Maru 5 then commenced its way to Fremantle arriving at the port of Fremantle at 7.20am on 11 January and berthed at Victoria Quay at 8.40am.

Water police in Fremantle were informed of the disappearance on 8 January at approximately 12.45pm and four vessels took part in a comprehensive search along with aerial support. It was estimated that the total area covered to be around 130 square nautical miles. It was unclear whether Hiyomori could swim but often Japanese fishermen were unable to swim.

At the inquest there was no evidence or indication that what had happened was anything other than an accident and that Hiyomori was beyond all reasonable doubt deceased. The Coroner determined Hiyomori died of unknown causes and made an Open Finding on how the death occurred.