Sometime between 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. on Sept 20, passengers aboard Royal Caribbean cruise ship SERENADE OF THE SEAS reported a man overboard in rough seas in the Adriatic Sea, about 40 miles off Ancona, while bound for Venice, Italy. The man was a 24-year-old man from Panama who was working as a galley steward. Italian and Croatian Coast Guards conducted a search by sea and by air, but did not find him.
F/V MOONLIGHT MAID sank the night of September 20 in Resurrection Bay. Wooden hulled, 110-foot MOONLIGHT MAID was once a World War II sub chaser, SC 536, serving in the South Pacific. After the war, she was sold and used for fishing.
A crewmember of MOONLIGHT MAID radioed the Coast Guard at 9:01 p.m. that they were taking on water. He reported they'd lost their generator and were using flashlights as they put on their survival suits and readied their life raft and EPIRB. MOONLIGHT MAID remained in contact with the Coast Guard until abandoned.
Seas at the time were 13 feet with 20-30 mph winds. The crew of four were rescued by Coast Guard helicopter and taken to Seward without report of injury. The crew was well prepared with EPIRB, radio, life raft, survival suits.
MOONLIGHT MAID went down with around 3,000 gallons of diesel. The Coast Guard is monitoring for debris and pollution and investigating the cause of the sinking.
Around 10:30 p.m. on September 18, the Coast Guard received a call that the captain of the 40 foot S/V BETH had incurred back, rib, and arm injuries caused by the boom. This happened about thirteen miles west of Port Angeles, Washington.
The Coast Guard deployed a helicopter and a response boat, which arrived at around 11:30. The USCG safely transferred the injured man to the response boat, which transported him to EMS support at Port Angeles and then treated at nearby Olympic Medical Center. In the meantime, BETH was towed into Port Angeles by the Coast Guard.
According to USCG registration documents, BETH is home-ported in Bellingham, WA. An investigation is underway.
Sunday, September 16, at 9:25 p.m. EDT, a 21-year-old woman from Bartlett, Tennessee, went overboard from Royal Caribbean cruise ship ALLURE OF THE SEAS about 47 miles east of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, headed for a seven-day cruise, with Nassau the next destination. According to reports, one other guest witnessed the tragedy, and the cruise ship surveillance camera recorded and confirmed the woman having gone into her cabin but not coming back out. It has not been disclosed under what circumstances she went overboard.
Officers on board ALLURE OF THE SEAS were notified at 9:30 p.m., and began to search the ship to find her. The Coast Guard was not notified until 11:30 p.m. ALLURE OF THE SEAS continued to sail much of those two hours during the on board search, returning to search where she fell after they were able to pinpoint the timing and GPS coordinates from the video footage.
ALLURE OF THE SEAS is the largest cruise ship in the world, with a capacity of 5,400 passengers and 2,300 crew members.
The Coast Guard began a 46-hour search of over 2,300 miles by helicopter, other aircraft, and by sea. The woman was not found during that time and the search was suspended. The FBI is now involved in the investigation.
NEW YORK -- The media reports that a NY/NJ Port Authority Harbor Police boat carrying 10 officers sank in the cold waters off of Breezy Point in New York on Sunday, September 9. Operator error is being sited as the cause.
According to reports, seven of the officers were already in the water training for their water-rescue certification when the 37-foot craft started sinking at 4:30 p.m. The rest were quickly forced to abandon ship. Those in the water swam some 300 feet to shore; the rest were picked up by an FDNY marine unit after transferring themselves and some gear to a life raft.
Moose Boats sent a letter to customers explaining what happened and providing a warning to other operators:
"The cause of the vessel's sinking was a result of the crew removing the Hamilton Jet impeller inspection hatch in an attempt to cut free a suspected line caught in the impeller. The impeller inspection hatch is below the water line by several inches is only intended for servicing access with the vessel out of the water.
"The crew were unable to replace the impeller inspection hatch cover due to the large volume of the water entering the engine compartment through the open impeller inspection port. The watertight Freeman deck hatch on the swim grid may have remained removed creating a full flood condition of the hull as the buoyancy diminished resulting in the vessel sinking."
The incident remains under investigation at this time.
On Saturday, Sept 8, the Coast Guard, local rescue agencies, and Good Samaritans searched for and rescued two men whose boat sank off Beaver Point, Alaska. The boat is said to be a 28-foot aluminum vessel called KAITLIN RAI. When waves capsized her, the men were able to climb onto the hull, which gave them time to take action before she sank.
Stonie Huffman was able to find a survival suit floating among the debris, and eventually to don it. With some effort, Ryan Hunter Harris was able to get into a fishing tote and kept afloat in that manner. The waves soon separated the men. Mac Huffman spent the night floating in his survival suit before landing on the beach at Point Amelia and attracting rescuers.
The two men had been reported overdue by friends late Friday night; multiple searches ensued as light and weather permitted. During a third search effort on Saturday Huffman was located on the beach by an Alaska State Trooper vessel and airlifted by the Coast Guard to Sitka for medical care. With information on the likely whereabouts of Ryan Harris, a fourth search effort followed. A Good Samaritan fishing vessel crew soon found Harris, who had been floating in the fish tote for over 24 hours by then, further north near Eagle Rock. The Coast Guard airlifted him for medical treatment in Sitka. Both men were reported in stable condition at the time of their rescues.
On August 7, at 8:55 a.m., the Coast Guard suspended its search for a man, later identified as Andre Staples of Birmingham, Alabama who was a cook on the sternwheeler, who had fallen from the stern of QUEEN OF THE WEST. The 221-foot sternwheeler, which runs cruises along the Columbia River, was at dock in Rainier, Oregon, when the loss occurred. According to reports, witnesses saw him once in the water before losing sight of him.
The Coast Guard was alerted shortly after 1:00 a.m. on August 7, and conducted a search by helicopter and boat, covering approximately ten square miles, along with Columbia County marine assets and the crew of T/V MAVERICK, before suspending the search.
A Magone Marine boat sank while tied up at the dock in Unalaska Thursday morning, spilling a small amount of diesel fuel. Coast Guard Lt. Jim Fothergill says it's not clear why the landing craft JOSHUA sank. The vessel leaked 10 gallons of diesel into the water before Magone personnel were able to stop the spill. There are still 750 gallons of fuel inside the landing craft.
Magone personnel will try to refloat the JOSHUA Friday afternoon. Fothergill says the Coast Guard will be on hand to supervise that operation. The agency is investigating the cause of the sinking.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Three people were rescued from the 58-foot fishing vessel Advantage on Friday after it sank south of Kodiak Island, one crewman remained missing, according to a Coast Guard report.
The Coast Guard was alerted when the command center in Juneau received an emergency radio beacon indicating the location of the vessel 14 miles southeast of Kodiak Island.
A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter was launched and crew from Air Station Kodiak to go to the location of the emergency beacon.
The helicopter arrived on scene after the fishing vessel had sunk and just a debris field remained where the Advantage went down.
"It looks like it sank fairly quickly," said Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Francis. At the time the boat sank, the National Weather Service was forecasting 8-foot seas in the area. The three crewmembers were found in a life raft. None of them was wearing survival suits. They were hoisted to safety at 1:55 a.m. and brought back to Kodiak where they were treated for hypothermia at Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center, she said.
The helicopter with a fresh crew returned to the area of the sinking vessel to look for the missing crewman. By noon Friday, Francis said four searches of the area had been made but there was no sign of the missing crewman.
It is too early to know why the fishing boat sank.
The 79-foot sightseeing vessel BARANOF WIND apparently hit a rock while in Glacier Bay and began taking on water. The Coast Guard, and the National Park Service responded, the Coast Guard delivered a dewatering pump to BARANOF WIND by helicopter and diverted a cutter to assist.
Good Samaritan VOLENDAM crewmembers took aboard seventy people from BARANOF WIND, while two people were taken aboard a National Park Service boat. Four of the BARANOF WIND crew remained behind to maintain the pumping. Current reports indicate that the flooding has been contained without pollution, and that BARANOF WIND remains stable at anchor with pumps working. The Coast Guard is investigating the cause of the accident and pollution potential, and also is developing a plan with Allen Marine Tours to get BARANOF WIND towed to Sitka for repair.
On August 14, 82-foot wooden hulled fishing tender RANDI LYNN grounded on a reef in Saw Mill Bay in Prince William Sound, while entering the bay to deliver supplies and mail to other fishing crews in that area. Minor engine room flooding resulted from the hull damage, but RANDI LYNN's dewatering pumps kept her afloat.
RANDI LYNN was moved to a mooring buoy at nearby Chenega, where divers began temporary repairs with wedges, caulking, and plywood patches. The Coast Guard was notified on Wednesday to assess any environmental impact and to inspect the temporary repair work. RANDI LYNN had 4,000 gallons of fuel on board, none appears to have leaked, although a minor sheen resulted from dewatering the engine room. Because of the nearby fish hatchery and other marine life, a precautionary boom was used to contain the sheen.
August 2, 50-foot F/V EVENING STAR sunk in 300 feet of water at Slocum Arm, about forty miles northwest of Sitka, with about 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on board. A significant oil sheen of about three-quarters of a mile in length visible, which prompted an emergency purse seine fishery closure in the area to avoid risk of harvesting in contaminated waters.
EVENING STAR capsized while the crew was pulling in nets of salmon. The crew of Good Samaritan F/V CHIKAMIN rescued all five of the EVENING STAR crew and took them to Sitka, where they are reported to be in good condition. The cause of the sinking is under investigation.
NOAA has released an enforcement action summary of violations by Seattle-based American Seafoods Company factory trawler AMERICAN DYNASTY and issued a $543,000 Notice of Violation Assessment for 32 counts of Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act civil infractions. The infractions cited in the summary include failing to maintain or operate a flow scale for accurately weighing fish; submitting inaccurate or false data, statements, or reports; not complying with flow scale testing requirements; not providing information to an observer or not having an observer present; not complying with reporting requirements; failing to weigh catch; interfering with or biasing an observer's sampling procedure; and not providing reasonable assistance. The charges are against the owner, manager and operator of AMERICAN DYNASTY.
The EPA announced on August 10 that Seattle-based Icicle Seafoods, Inc. and its subsidiaries have agreed to pay $430,000 in fines for violating the Clean Air Act.
These violations pertain to improperly releasing and maintaining R-22 between 2006 and 2008, including: Icicle did not timely repair R-22 leaks, did not keep adequate repair service records on its refrigeration appliances, did not ensure repairs were adequate before resuming appliance function, and did not have a certified refrigerant recovery device when performing service on these appliances.
On August 7, at 8:55 a.m., the Coast Guard suspended its search for a man who had fallen from the stern of QUEEN OF THE WEST, a sternwheeler, which cruises along the Columbia River, was at dock in Rainier, Oregon, when the tragedy occurred. According to reports, witnesses saw him once in the water before losing sight of him.
The Coast Guard was alerted shortly after 1:00 a.m. on August 7, and conducted a search by helicopter and boat, covering approximately ten square miles, along with Columbia County marine assets and the crew of T/V MAVERICK, before suspending the search.
