Sara Francis, USCG via AP
The Ryou-un Maru drifts northwest in the Gulf of Alaska nearly 200 miles southwest of Sitka, Alaska, on Wednesday.
By Miguel Llanos, msnbc.com
Updated at 5:40 p.m. ET: A U.S. Coast Guard cutter was firing its 25mm cannon at a derelict Japanese fishing vessel on Thursday, aiming to sink what it called a threat to shipping.
The firing began after a brief delay caused by a Canadian ship that wanted to salvage the Ryou-un Maru but then quickly found it it wasn't able to tow it back to shore.
Set adrift by Japan's 2011 tsunami and now less than 200 miles off Alaska, the fishing vessel was being fired on by the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Anacapa.
Besides clearing a shipping lane, sinking the nearly 200-foot-long vessel provides the Anacapa crew "a great way for them to put their skills to use," Coast Guard spokesman Kip Wadlow told msnbc.com from Juneau, Alaska.
Wadlow said the drifting vessel makes shipping in the area extremely dangerous. "There's no crew on board, it doesn't have any light ... and it's in a high volume shipping lane," he noted.
The fishing boat, which was in port waiting to be scrapped when the tsunami took it out to sea, is far enough away that any fuel on board would not make it to shore, Wadlow added. The Coast Guard later elaborated that it appears to be carrying little fuel since it is riding high in the water, the AP reported.
A Coast Guard C-130 was flying over the area to warn away any nearby ships for what is described as a "live fire exercise" with the Anacapa's 25mm cannon.
Dropping crews aboard the boat is too dangerous, Wadlow said, and "the owner no longer wants it."
But that didn't stop the Bernice C from trying to make some money off the rusty vessel.
Based in Petersburg, Alaska, the Anacapa arrived Wednesday night alongside the Ryou-un Maru, which entered U.S. waters on April 1. The ship was moored at a harbor in Hachinohe, Japan, when the earthquake and tsunami hit on March 11, 2011.
The vessel is the first large object to reach North America following the tsunami. Smaller objects have been found on U.S. coasts but much more debris is expected to make its way via currents to U.S. and Canadian beaches by 2014.
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