Nation & World

The Coast Guard is continuing to track that fishing boat that was cast out to sea from last year’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Chief Petty Officer Janelle Webster at the command center in Juneau says the derelict vessel is now about 170 miles west of Dall Island, or the southwest corner of Prince of Wales Island. Webster says a C-130 aircraft did an overflight Saturday and Monday. Another flight may be conducted Tuesday to check on the condition of the vessel, named the Ryou-un Maru and believed between 150- and 180-feet long.

A notice to mariners has been issued for any other traffic in the area to be aware of the unmanned ghost ship which has no operating lights.

Video of data marker buoy drop near the Ryou-un Maru

Debris from the tsunami, such as oyster buoys, have already been reported ashore along the southern coast of Alaska. So far, this is the first and only ship that’s been spotted cast adrift across the Pacific Ocean.

Alaska ranks first in the number of deaths caused by guns, according to 2008 data released by the CDC.

A corresponding analysis indicates the states with the highest rates also had the highest gun ownership. The Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C. says those states have lax gun laws.

The CDC has been collecting data on violent deaths in Alaska since 2003, according to its website. The latest data available is from 2008. The CDC did its last survey of gun ownership by state in 2002.

Kristen Rand is the Legislative Director for the Violence Policy Center, which analyzed the CDC data.

“These numbers include all gun death categories which are homicide, suicide, and unintentional, so that would include the gun hunting accident, cleaning your gun accidents. So anyone who dies of a gunshot wound in the United States would be included in these numbers,” Rand says.

She says the 2008 numbers indicate that 60.6 percent of Alaskans owned guns, and 20 of every 100-thousand people died by gunshot.

Mississippi ranked second with 19 deaths by firearm per 100-thousand people, followed by Louisiana, Alabama, and Wyoming.

According to the Violence Policy Center, more than 30-thousand Americans die annually in gun suicides, homicides, and unintentional shootings.