TOKYO, March 12 (UPI) -- A fishing boat thought to have fallen victim to the tsunami following Japan's 8.9-magnitude earthquake has been found with all aboard alive, officials said.
The vessel was found beached near a port in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan Saturday morning, the New York Daily News reported.
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Rescuers airlifted the 81 people aboard to safety.
"It's a tsunami of a once-in-a-century scale," said Shigeo Takahashi, of Japan's Port and Airport Research Institute.
More than 1,700 people were feared dead in Friday's earthquake and resulting tsunami, which washed some ocean-front cities away.
