MANILA -- A search has been launched for a Japanese fishing vessel with a crew of nine that lost contact after leaving the southern Philippines.

Owner Sanko Pacific Tuna Inc. told the Philippine Coast Guard that it has had no contact with the vessel Kaio Maru No. 5 since Saturday, when its crew of eight Filipinos and one Japanese radioed their last location at 95 kilometers northeast of Indonesia's Talaud Islands.

Coast guard Cmdr. Roy Echeverria said Wednesday that Sanko's sister company in Indonesia has dispatched six search vessels.

The fishing vessel left the southern Philippine port city of Davao on Friday en route to Palau in the western Pacific. (AP)