Maritime Injury Lawyer Blog

314-foot F/V ARCTIC STORM crew contacted the Coast Guard May 20th about an engine room fire, approximately 32 miles off Grays Harbor, WA. Four Good Samaritan commercial fishing vessels (GOLDEN ALASKA, NORTHERN VOYAGER, EXCELLENCE, and SEA DAWN) answered the Coast Guard's Urgent Marine Information Broadcast while the Coast Guard deployed two helicopters and three motor lifeboats.

Good Samaritan crews reportedly took on 78 of the ARCTIC STORM crew, with Coast Guard aid, by evening as the fire was brought under control. Forty-two other crew members remained with the disabled vessel awaiting a tow to Aberdeen, WA, today.

No injuries have been reported, and there are no reports any of the 188,000 gallons of fuel aboard causing pollution. About 66,000 pounds of Pacific whiting is on board. The Coast Guard is investigating the cause of the fire.

On April 10, the crew of 52-foot, Montauk-based F/V SEA SMOKE alerted the Coast Guard that one of their crewmates had severed a finger when he had been working with fishing gear. Located 39 miles southeast of Montauk Point, New York, the Coast Guard air lifted the 23-year-old man for medical care in Greenport, New York, where he was reported to be in stable condition. The man's name and the details of the incident have not been released.

Three people were rescued when their shrimp boat caught fire in the Houston Ship Channel, one of the United State's busiest seaports. Although Coast Guard units and a helicopter were prepared to perform the rescue, a nearby boater witnessed the fire first and evacuated three people from the boat before rescue efforts could be mounted.

According to Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Lehman, a fire ignited on the burning shrimp boat while it was about half a mile off the Galveston jetties at the east end of the island, near Port Bolivar. Dense black smoke filled the sky above the channel shortly after 10:00 a.m., alerting many nearby boaters and the Coast Guard's traffic service station of the ensuing danger. The 55-foot shrimp boat, believed to be the Captain Hunter, was a fixture in the busy hub of the Houston Ship Channel.

F/V LINDA CLAIRE capsized and sank early the early morning in Delaware Bay, about six miles west of Cape May Point, while dredging for crab. Forty-foot LINDA CLAIRE was built in 1994 with a fiberglass hull.

Nearby Good Samaritan crews of F/V CAPTAIN BROWN and F/V SANDRA LEE were able to pull two of the fishermen out of the water, as a crewmember of CAPTAIN BROWN alerted the Coast Guard. These two fishermen, said to be Chris Serra, 27, and David Woods, 25, were then transferred for medical care. A search by air and sea is continuing for the third man, Josh Cattlet, 24, who remains missing.

Six fishermen are safe after their vessel began taking on water and sank approximately two miles off the coast of Kahoolawe, Maui.

Coast Guard Sector Honolulu watchstanders received a radio call from the captain of the 43-foot charter fishing vessel Piper at 12 p.m. The captain reported the vessel was sinking and passengers were putting on lifejackets. All six people aboard the Piper abandoned ship into a life raft.

A 45-foot Response Boat from Coast Guard Station Maui was launched. Watchstanders issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast over VHF marine radio channel 16 to notify other vessels in the area of the emergency and the need for immediate assistance. The crew aboard the recreational vessel Misti III responded and rescued the passengers and crew. The Misti III transported the six survivors to Ma'alaea Harbor where emergency medical services met them. No serious injuries were reported.

Coast Guard reports a 27-year-old fisherman working aboard Seattle-based 116-foot F/V BEAUTY BAY was medevaced by Coast Guard helicopter the morning of March 8 for a hand injury he had suffered the prior morning. The young man was transported to the St. Paul Clinic for immediate care.

The weather on the day of the injury consisted of 50 mph winds and over 20-foot seas, too rough for the Coast Guard to safely reach BEAUTY BAY. During that time, BEAUTY BAY proceeded toward the town of St. Paul in order to shorten the distance before the pending medevac. By the morning of March 8, the weather had improved and the airlift was able to proceed safely.

Morning of March 6, F/V SEAFARER and her crew of three headed was disabled and on tow by her sister ship, F/V CAPTAIN ALEX. The tow was lost and SEAFARER disappeared from view. Her EPIRB signal alerted the Coast Guard at 10:39 a.m. The Coast Guard arrived about fifteen miles east of Assateague Island, MD, and found Patrick Small of NC, in a raft with hypothermia and a head injury. He was airlifted to hospital care.

The other two fishermen, said to be Walter Tate, Sr., and his nephew, Steve Tate, both also of North Carolina, remain missing. Seas at the time were 8 to 12 feet with winds of 30 to 40 miles per hour; the Coast Guard suspended the search yesterday evening as rain and cloud cover increased with winds reaching 60 per hour, but resumed their efforts at daybreak today. At 1:00 p.m. EST today, after searching over 560 square nautical miles, the search was again suspended.

Midnight on February 13, a 44-year-old crewman aboard F/V STARBOUND was reported as having heart attack symptoms. The Coast Guard deployed a helicopter to the location STARBOUND off St. Paul, Alaska, and airlifted the man to the St. Paul Clinic.

STARBOUND is registered as a 205-foot, steel-hulled fishing vessel based in Seattle. There is no word on the crewman's condition.

F/V BLUE WATER TOO, Oregon based, experienced a medical emergency when a 64-year-old crewmember was having chest pains. Following a call for assistance in during the afternoon of February 13, the vessel was about two nautical miles off the mouth of Tillimook Bay, a Coast Guard motor lifeboat to transported the crewman for emergency medical care. His condition was listed as stable.

Approximately 35 miles southeast of Nantucket, the crew of 88-foot F/V RAIDERS, fought an onboard fire with extinguishers. The crew of eight exhausted their extinguishers, and a Good Samaritan in the area supplied RAIDERS with five more. The fire was extinguished, but the engine was determined to be non-functional. A Coast Guard cutter arrived and began towing before a tugboat hired by the RAIDERS took over. No pollution or injuries were reported.

Feb 4 at 1:20 am, the four-person crew of 47-foot F/V CAPTAIN RM CHACE sent out a distress call, relaying that their vessel was flooding. The crew waited in their survival suits for the Coast Guard to arrive with an additional dewatering pump. The extra pump controlled the flooding enough for the CAPTAIN RM CHACE to be escorted to port in Hyannis, where the crew was able to offload their catch.

F/V NORTH SEA, a Seattle-based Coastal Villages Region Fund crab boat, experienced an emergency med-evac of a 23 year old fisherman on Jan 30th . NORTH SEA crewmembers called the Coast Guard that afternoon as the crewman was suffering seizure-like symptoms.

NORTH SEA was about 60 miles southwest of St. Paul, Alaska. Conditions at the time are said to have been 6-foot seas and 29mph winds. The Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Kodiak airlifted the fisherman to St. Paul for medical attention.

Coast Guard has escorted fishing vessels back to Alaskan ports after finding safety problems during at-sea safety inspections. One of the vessels had expired fire extinguishers, two of which were inoperable due to water corrosion; the other vessel had cracks in the vessel buoyant apparatus and was missing survival suits. These problems must be remedied and a dockside safety exam passed before being released to return to fishing.

The Coast Guard received a May Day at 2:30 am from the fishing vessel GENESIS A, reportedly aground at the mouth of Willapa Bay near Leadbetter Point. Coast Guard helicopter crew from Astoria, Oregon, hoisted four crewmen and their dog to safety. There were no reported injuries to the crewmen. The cause of the grounding is unknown at this time, and the Coast Guard is assessing potential environmental damage.

F/V NORTHERN LEADER was launched at Martinac Shipyard in Tacoma, WA, on January 26, 2013. At 184'3" with a 42' beam, NORTHERN LEADER will be among the largest freezer- longliners in operation, and the largest of the Alaskan Leader Fisheries fleet.

NORTHERN LEADER is a state-of-the-art catcher/processor vessel with diesel electric power, giving up to thirty-five-percent fuel savings over traditional engines. She will fish using Mustad Deep Sea System long lines that specifically target mature fish of the intended species, thus significantly reducing by-catch.