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KAGOSHIMA, Japan - More than 90 people were injured when a hydrofoil hit an unidentified marine object off Cape Sata on Sunday, a Japan Coast Guard spokesman said.
According to the 10th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters in Kagoshima, 88 of the 109 passengers and five of the six crew members on the high-speed ferry Toppy 4 were hurt. Of those, 12 were seriously injured. Thirty-six, including some crew members, were hospitalized.
Coast Guard officials started Monday morning inspecting the water around the accident site and are expected to question Koichi Akase, the ferry's captain, who was hospitalized.
According to a spokesman at Kagoshima Shosen, which operates the ferry, Toppy was cruising near its maximum speed of 50 mph at the time of the accident.
''Something hit the hydrofoil's port stern quarter, and the boat plunged forward,'' Akase was quoted by the spokesman as saying. ''There was no driftwood in sight, so I think it's highly likely that Toppy hit some kind of marine creature like a whale.''
The coast guard dispatched six patrol vessels and two helicopters after it received an emergency call from a passenger on board Toppy at about 6 p.m. Sunday. The 12 seriously injured people and infants were transferred from the ferry to two patrol boats. The two boats arrived in Ibusuki by 9:50 that evening.
The patrol ship Sendai towed Toppy, which was unable to continue under its own power, and the remaining 85 passengers on board reached Yamagawa Port in Ibusuki at 11:30 p.m.
Four Toppy ferries ply the route that connects Kagoshima, Tanegashima island and Yakushima island 13 times daily. Kagoshima Shosen began operating the service in 1989.
The ferry has a hydrofoil at its bow and stern that lift the boat's hull above the surface of the water. Though the boat is equipped with an underwater speaker that emits a sound whales are supposed to dislike, it is not effective against all kinds of whales.