Nearly a decade after it was washed out into the Pacific and probably as far as the west coast of the United States by a massive tsunami that killed thousands of people and sparked a nuclear disaster, a fishing boat has reappeared on the shores of Japan.

Earlier this month, nine years and nine months after it sank into the ocean off Kesennuma, a town 650km [403 miles] to the north, the tiny boat was located off Hachijo Island.

More than 18,000 people were killed by the March 2011 tsunami, caused by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake.

According to the Mainichi Shimbun, a local fishing cooperative confirmed that the 5.5-meter fibreglass boat had once belonged to the Kesennuma fishing fleet after verifying its registration number.

The large amount of coral found attached to the interior of the boat has caused speculation about where it had drifted to before ending up on Hachijo, located about 300 km south of Tokyo.

One local expert cited by the Mainichi said it may have been swept through the Pacific to a location near the west coast of the United States, after which the north equatorial current, which flows east to west, was transported to south-east Asia.

After the earthquake, many debris objects made the long trip through the Pacific, the height and strength of which led to the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant reactor.

Maritime Business World