American Samoa investigates mysterious boat sightings

The American Samoa government is planning to send a team to investigate strange boat sightings at Ta'u Island.

Director of Homeland Security Samana Semo Veavea said when the governor gives approval, a team of police, Coast Guard and Homeland Security agents will be sent to Ta'u.

The local marine safety detachment unit had conducted interviews and forwarded a report to Honolulu.

Residents said they had seen what appeared to be two large unidentified vessels offshore late at night.

They also claimed that two small boats were sighted making their way to shore between Friday night and early Saturday morning.

Samana said the Coast Guard had been able to track a number of vessels in the area.

"When the Coast Guart were tracking there were four, three Chinese vessels and one Tui Samoa was the name of the other vessel," he said.

"They were all heading towards American Samoa, they were coming from the north."

Samana said they were getting many calls giving varied accounts of what had happened.

He said sending a team to Ta'u would help allay people's concerns and hopefully put their minds at ease.