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 3:30 p.m. ET: So much for target practice on Thursday. After preparing to sink a derelict Japanese fishing vessel, the U.S. Coast Guard is standing down because a Canadian fishing boat has claimed salvage rights.
The Ryou-un Maru, which was set adrift by Japan's 2011 tsunami and is now floating in shipping lanes less than 200 miles off Alaska, was to have been sunkby the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Anacapa.
Besides clearing a shipping lane, sinking the nearly 200-foot-long vessel would have provided the Anacapa crew "a great way for them to put their skills to use," Coast Guard spokesman Kip Wadlow told msnbc.com before the claim was made.
The Bernice C was making its way to the scene in hopes of towing the vessel to shore. The Associated Press cited Coast Guard spokesman Paul Webb as saying the ship could still be sunk if the Bernice C fails to secure it safely.
"It's a strange twist," Webb said, "but that's how things go."
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.
Wadlow said 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. The Coast Guard later elaborated that it appears to be carrying little fuel since it is riding high in the water, the Associated Press reported.
A Coast Guard C-130 was to have flown over the area to warn away any nearby ships for what was described as a "live fire exercise" by the Anacapa's 25-mm 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.
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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