Search Results for: American Challenger
Approval granted for removal of grounded American Challenger
The U.S. Coast Guard’s top commander has authorized use of federal dollars from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund to dismantle a 90-foot, decommissioned fishing vessel grounded on the rocks off the Marin Coast since last March. But the long-awaited consent means little until rough winter ocean conditions subside long enough to make salvage operations safe, officials said. The salvage “is approved, so it’s just a matter of time now,” said Eric Laughlin, a spokesman for the California Fish and Game Department’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response, which is handling communication for Unified Command. >click to read< 19:02
American Challenger: Salvage of grounded fishing vessel delayed – again.
The junked American Challenger vessel has listed more sharply in the months since it ran aground off the northern Marin coast, littering the shore with debris. And now officials have determined that the decommissioned fishing vessel is unsafe even for contract crews to board the vessel to weatherproof it for winter. “We’re on the verge of getting this thing removed from there,” Kinsey said, “and I just think as painfully slow and seemingly endless as the bureaucratic reviews have been, the good news is everyone has gotten to the place of, ‘Yeah, we’re going to get this thing out of here.’ Photo’s, video, >click to read< Search results for American Challenger, >click to read< 15:47
Grounded 90-foot vessel American Challenger to be refloated
Hopes are to have the 90-foot American Challenger refloated and towed away later this summer, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response. The decommissioned commercial vessel grounded north of Dillon Beach on March 6 after running adrift under tow from Puget Sound to Mexico, where it was to have been scuttled. The tugboat operator towing the decommissioned vessel said later that a steel shackle connecting the boats failed in Bodega Bay, ultimately causing the American Challenger to drift into shore, though a Coast Guard crew was monitoring it at the time. photos, >click to read< 13:40
Wreckage Removal on Hold! F/V American Challenger stuck on Marin coast until salvage funds identified
State and federal officials are wrapping up their emergency response to a wrecked fishing vessel on the northern Marin coast,,, Tom Cullen, administrator for the state Office of Spill Prevention and Response, was outwardly frustrated by the long-running discussions about the problem and, in particular, by the American Challenger — an uninsured boat from out of state on its way to be scuttled being towed by a tugboat that also was uninsured.,, Both the tugboat and the 1975 American Challenger are owned by Ship International Inc., whose principal, Felix Vera, are not able to fund the salvage. video, >click to read< 10:04
Shipwreck lodged on Marin coast probed for pollution threat remains in place
Nearly a month after a 90-foot fishing boat ran aground on the Marin coast, the wreckage remains in place while specialists assess the risk of environmental damage. A team of marine engineers and safety experts has been enlisted to determine how much fuel is aboard the American Challenger, which drifted to shore on March 6. So far, the contractors have evaluated 13 of the 17 tanks onboard, but progress was halted when the ship shifted, making work conditions unsafe,,, >click to read< 08:08
State and local agencies continue work to address grounded vessel at Dillon Beach
Officials said the Coast Guard Sector San Francisco watchstanders received initial reports at 8:45 a.m. Friday, March 5, that the American Challenger was being towed southward by the Tug Hunter from Puget Sound, Washington, when the Tug Hunter lost propulsion due to a rope entangling the propeller. On Tuesday, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said marine surveyors boarded the American Challenger to continue their inspection of the vessel’s fuel tanks by using sound tapes and paste to get an accurate reading of the amount of fuel aboard. >click to read< 07:45
Oil contamination found at Marin beach when vessel grounds following towing incident
The incident happened Friday morning while the 90-foot fishing boat was being towed south from the Seattle area, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The tugboat Hunter became disabled when a rope got tangled in its propeller. Rough sea and poor visibility forced the tug crew to discontinue the job, the department said. The tugboat was towed to Sausalito, and the fishing boat drifted into the rocks south of Estero de San Antonio. The boat, named American Challenger, is being watched by officials,,, On Monday, the Coast Guard did not have an estimated time in which the fishing boat could be removed. >click to read< 12:10
Hang on to those baseball caps and grab some ear protectors! Lobster boat racing season is here
It’s the middle of June and the Maine lobster boat racing season is here. Last year saw some fierce competition despite the absence of two traditional, longtime racing venues. This year, Searsport and Harpswell are both still absent from the schedule, but there could be a potent new challenger for the World’s Fastest Lobster Boat title now held by Foolish Pleasure, and almost certainly, a Canadian invasion. This year’s schedule includes 10 events, with racing in ports all along the coast stretching from Portland to Jonesport. Nine of those events will count toward the Maine Lobster Boat Racing Association’s season-long points championship. The season opens this Saturday morning with the Boothbay Harbor Charlie Begin Memorial Lobster Boat Races. On Sunday, the fleet will head for Rockland to race behind the breakwater inside the harbor. Read the story here 11:15
ILLEGAL COD FISHING GETS UNALASKA COURT SYMPATHY — NO RIGHTS REMOVED
By Ludger Dochtermann, F/V North Point, F/V Stormbird; Kodiak, Alaska
Saturday, September 5, 2015, Deckboss blogspot news [http://deckboss.blogspot.com/] from the Alaska State Troopers stated, “State secures convictions against three trawlers, wins forfeiture of Pacific cod worth $106,326” — in a set of cases involving commercial fishing in closed waters as reported on February 24, 2015. The violations apparently occurred in the closed waters of Kagalaska Strait, east of Adak Island in the western Aleutians.
The combined total of fines levied was, disgracefully, a mere $12,000.
The confiscated illegal catch totaled 393,791 pounds of cod, its forfeiture value computed at a mere 27 cents per raw catch pound of Pacific cod. That’s severely undervalued and a far cry short of the sales values those companies would have received. In comparison, East Coast, ex-vessel Atlantic cod prices are currently considered low at $1.50.
What’s the true value of the confiscated catch, from ocean to consumers?
Oddly enough, the greater volumes of criminal catches were aboard the smallest two of the three vessels: 248,035 on the 102-foot Muir Milach, owned by Aleutian Spray Reverse LLC, and 138,767 pounds on the 88-foot Aleutian Challenger a catcher vessel to mothership operations, while the 296-foot, 4,500 hp stern trawler-processor Katie Ann of the American Seafoods Company trawler processor fleet captured only 6,989 pounds — but they paid half of the total fines.
Just last year, I won a petition to the Alaska Board of Fish in a Kodiak meeting. Their decision finally closed crucial state waters, after years of trawler abusive fishing in vital crab spawning bays of southwest Kodiak Island. Now the critical habitat in all of the island’s bays are closed.
You can bet your boat that the entire bottom dragging trawl fleet knew of the closures within hours. They are treading carefully, and it appears no more mud and dead crab shells churn in those bays. Restocking crab species might someday have a survivable chance.
So, how were long-closed waters of Kagalaska Strait not regulations fully aware to the captains involved? Obviously, they ‘willfully and knowingly’ violated the fisheries law. Why was the judge blind to their ill intent and immoral profit motives?
The operator of the worst offending vessel in these cases happened to be a defendant in many legal cases across Alaska’s coast over decades. We do not know the details or court results. But doesn’t his behavior involving the quarter-million pound violation alone warrant suspension of his rights to operate a vessel in the cod fisheries, at the least? The Unalaska resident magistrate should not have been ignorant to the fact that the cod quota system put many good skippers out of work. Many are available and willing to conduct fishing legally, outside known closed-waters.
Unbelievably, there’s not one mention of the court taking away for at least one year the Western Aleutian Islands cod fishing rights for each vessel in the top two cases, when it is more than warranted. How else will these costly cases serve as a deterrent to other vessel owners and their operators, instead of motivate more cheating? How does $12,000 cover the state’s costs in this matter? Were they even charged court costs?
These cases were before the Dutch Harbor based state’s enforcement vessel Stimson was moved last month to Kodiak to the docks in Dog Bay, right where the trawlers berth. Along with the Wolstadt, it sits at our docks due to budgetary shortages and appears to seldom if ever look for more violators. Will other trawlers simply risk bad behavior too, knowing the stand-down status of enforcers who are also now far from Dutch Harbor?
What will happen once Kodiak trawlers fathom how those enforcement stalls are never vacant? Will our bays once again be raided, too? We hope Alaskan legislators are reading, and that the promised $500,000 savings from the move will be budgeted for fuel and other costs for the Wolstadt and Stimson to go to sea.
Did the illegal pounds count against any quotas or catch limits for the vessels involved, so that they could not merely go back out and replace their forfeited cod with fresh catch?
These cases are like the old saying “In real estate, if you are going into debt with your bankers, then go big. Then they will have an investment in keeping you in business even if you break the worst laws, even if you should really be down on your knees before the bankruptcy judges.” These defendants must have had drama tears in their eyes before the judge.
Now, all fishermen I’ve talked to about it believe that the Unalaska District Court (port of Dutch Harbor) magistrate Jane Pearson eagerly fell on a sympathy sword. After living in Unalaska for a decade. If so, then “For shame!”
Is there any chance that when the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and NMFS Office of Law Enforcement become aware of these cases, that these violations in the state ‘parallel waters’ might also be worthy of revoking federal quota rights for at least the two worst offenders? One should hope so.
Not likely say most. Long-time former Advisory Panel member Dave Fraser was formerly captain of the Muir Milach, and the vessel currently lists Craig Cross —a NPFMC voting member from Washington State— as a contact person for Aleutian Spray Fisheries. At least Fraser once “complained that we were giving the fishery back to the Japanese after the effort to Americanize it.” American Seafoods has long-term representation in the NPFMC family, resembling a reserved seat on the advisory panel. Point is, these guys run amongst the power elite in Alaskan fisheries.
But hey, I’m a 73-year-old captain who still fishes legal; and have long known how it things go given fish politics that trounce rule of law. Special treatment was likely afforded to powerful interests, and they’ve won another victory by crying in court and laughing in the brew house afterwards, knowing they are once again ‘the untouchables.’
The courts never do anything to the personless activities of large corporations. The trawler-catchers and processors know that regular ‘powerless’ fishermen can’t do a thing about it, as we never wake up altogether and organize against the corruption of justice.
They know we’ll rant like hell and probably drink ourselves mad, then get up the next day and pick up where we left off, unprepared to stop this before the last fish is gone. But that’s the trawlers’ plan: to be reeling the last fish aboard, years from now, just as we’ve finally had enough and woke up together. It will be too late: for us and the fish.
Then Alaska’s trawlers will have some vote-starved congressional powerhouses cry tragedy for their sake, and get more government handouts in disaster relief funds for themselves – fleecing the taxpayers once again.
Meanwhile, we can all go back to believing that these vessels’ owners and captains didn’t know they were fishing in illegal waters. Untouchables. It’s time that changes.
Ludger Dochtermann, F/V Stormbird & F/V North Point
P.O. Box 714; Kodiak, Alaska 99615 Tel: 907.486.5450
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DECKBOSS’ BLOG POSTING:
Saturday, September 5, 2015
State secures convictions against three trawlers, wins forfeiture of Pacific cod worth $106,326
From the Alaska State Troopers:
Location: Kagalaska Strait
Type: Commercial fish closed waters
On 2/24/15 Dutch Harbor Wildlife Troopers received information regarding three commercial trawl vessels that had fished within closed waters between 175 and 178 degrees W longitude in the Aleutian Islands area. The three vessels were the 296-foot Katie Ann operated by Daniel Skauge, of Oregon; the 102-foot Muir Milach operated by David Willmore, of Washington; and the 88-foot Aleutian Challenger operated by Michael Murdock, of Washington. Investigation revealed the three vessels made multiple tows with their trawls through state waters in violation of state regulations.
A non-pelagic trawl used to harvest Pacific cod during the state waters “A” season may not be more than 60 feet in overall length. Skauge pled guilty to three counts of commercial fishing in closed waters, with a $6,000 fine and forfeiture of 6,989 pounds of cod. Willmore pled guilty to one count of commercial fishing in closed waters, with a $3,000 fine and forfeiture of 248,035 pounds of cod. Murdock pled guilty to one count of commercial fishing in closed waters, with a $3,000 fine and forfeiture of 138,767 pounds of cod. The approximate value of cod forfeited to the state was $106,326.
Editor’s note: All three defendants entered their pleas on Aug. 25 in Unalaska District Court.
FURTHER INFO:
Unalaska District Court – Customer Service (907) 581-1379. Was it magistrate Jane Pearson? Yes
Dutch Harbor State Troopers 581-1432; 486-4762 Kodiak – Sgt. Morisett, Rob.
TC: 9/8/15 – Morisett in out of the office until Sept. 18.
F/V ALASKA CHALLENGER – operated by:
Murdock, Michael Dean — Case No. 3UN-15-00115CR
Criminal District Court Misdemeanor (3UN) File date: 6/17/2015
M/V KATIE ANN – American Seafoods Company – operated by:
Skauge, Daniel Allen – Case No. 3UN-15-00116CR
Criminal District Court Misdemeanor (3UN) File date: 6/17/2015
F/V MUIR MILAC operated by:
Willmore, David Wayne — Case No. 3UN-15-00117CR
Criminal District Court Misdemeanor (3UN) File date: 6/17/2015
Note: there are six cases on file for Willmore.
