Tag Archives: Coast Guard hearing
Mom of doomed Mary B II skipper calls him experienced seaman for whom safety was ‘paramount,’ contradicting other witnesses
In day five of the Coast Guard hearing into the January capsizing of the Mary B II fishing vessel, the mother of the captain described a man vastly different from the one depicted throughout the week by other witnesses. Mary B. Anderson, managing member of the Mary B II LLC, bought the former Bess Chet last fall, after her son, Stephen Biernacki, convinced her it would be a good business opportunity. >click to read<13:06
F/V Destination Investigation: Day 2 – Brother of lost fisherman tells investigators about pressures of commercial fishing
Two days before the fishing vessel Destination disappeared in the Bering Sea with six crew members aboard, Dylan Hatfield met up with the crew in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Hatfield previously worked on the Destination. His brother, Darrik Seibold, took his place and was among those lost at sea. “I personally worked with every single man,” Seibold (Hatfield) told Coast Guard investigators who are looking into the February sinking of the boat. Hatfield said when he came off another boat and met the Destination’s crew, “the boys were pretty beat down. It was a pretty grueling cod season” with 24-hour work shifts. The crew was switching seasons, from cod to crab, and they were behind schedule for a delivery. Over dinner at the Norwegian Rat Saloon, Hatfield said, “I was all giddy and excited and it was a table full of long faces.” Video, click here to read the story 08:38
Accusations fly at hearing into Alaska Juris sinking
A Coast Guard hearing into the July sinking of the Alaska Juris took a volatile turn on Thursday as a marine contractor once charged with shore repairs alleged that misconduct by some Japanese crew contributed to safety problems. Herb Roeser, owner of Seattle-based Trans-Marine Propulsion Systems, alleged in his testimony that Masashi Yamada, a Japanese entrepreneur with wide-ranging business holdings, wielded behind-the-scenes control of the factory ship’s owner, Renton-based Fishing Company of Alaska. Roeser said Japanese crews working for one of Yamada’s businesses, Anyo Fisheries, “basically ran” the Alaska Juris. Over the years, Roeser said, the Alaska Juris had been weakened by not only age but also improper modifications ordered by Japanese crew and their rough fishing tactics that slammed metal trawl gear — known as doors — against the stern of the vessel and contributed to cracks. Roeser testified that when he stopped working for the company in 2011, he told the U.S. owner, the late Karena Adler, that “you need to put that ship in the scrap yard because nothing good is going to come of it.” Read the rest here 16:11
Crewman tells of harrowing escape from sinking Alaska Juris
The evacuation and rescue of the crew of 46 from the sinking Alaska Juris was accomplished without any deaths or serious injuries. But crewman Aaron Hell experienced tense moments as he briefly fell into the chill Bering Sea while trying to climb down a ladder along the side of the sinking vessel and board a life raft. During afternoon testimony, Hell described a multinational crew aboard the Alaska Juris that included Japanese, Mexicans and recruits from African nations. He said they all had to find a way to work together to enable operation of the Alaska Juris, an aging vessel built in the 1970s that motors off to remote locations to catch, process and freeze fish. Read the story here 08:27
