When there's somethin' strange... floatin' in the sea... who ya gonna call?
Not the ship's owner.
According to The Telegraph, the owner of the "ghost ship" bobbing off the coast of Canada isn't interested in having the lost fishing boat returned. The paper notes the unidentified owner said in Japanese media he'd given up hope of seeing the boat again.
Though the vacant vessel remains afloat, in financial terms, it's a sunk cost; the owner's lack of interest stems from a high cost to retrieve the boat, Time notes, with the price to tow it into British Columbia only dwarfed by the effort for a homecoming to Japan.
First reports of the soulless schooner came Saturday, as the 210-foot-long vessel was spotted about 160 miles off the coast of Haida Gwaii, near British Columbia, according to the Associated Press.
Officials issued a maritime warning about the ghost ship, as it could pose a "navigational hazard," according to AP, though it poses no environmental danger. However, further reports note that the listless boat is just the beginning of an estimated 1.5 million tons of debris floating toward North America, scattered by the tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011.