Tag Archives: Coast Guard
Coos Bay Fishermen Brace For Impacts From Jordan Cove And Channel-Widening Projects
The headland that look out over the ocean entrance to Coos Bay has been given a rather descriptive name by local fishermen. “We call it Chickenshit Point,” says Nick Edwards chuckling. Perhaps it’s because the people watching from up on the hill aren’t considered as brave as those on the boats crossing the dangerous Coos Bay bar below. “A lot of us will come up here and watch. Everybody goes, ‘He’s made it across the bar. He’s made it across the bar!’” he says. >click to read<09:45
Even after sinking of Seattle-based F/V Destination, Coast Guard slow-walks training for fishing boat skippers
The Coast Guard investigation into the 2017 sinking of the Seattle-based Destination, released last month, was the latest in a long succession of Coast Guard inquiries to spotlight serious stability problems that led to commercial fishing boats going down and their crews dying. Earlier findings prompted Congress, in a 2010 overhaul of commercial fishing safety laws, to require operators take a short course that reviews how loading gear, boat modifications and changing weather conditions can affect a vessel’s ability to stay afloat. But nine years later, the Coast Guard has yet to come up with regulations to enforce the safety mandate. Even in the aftermath of the Destination investigation, which documented the missteps that contributed to the loss of six crew members in the Bering Sea, Coast Guard leaders have yet to say when this training rule might be in place. So the stability courses remain voluntary, often sparsely attended. >click to read<11:07
Coast Guard: Blaze on fishing vessel started during Customs inspection
A fire on a 40 (?)-foot fishing vessel Thursday apparently started when members of the crew were undergoing a routine Customs and Border Protection inspection and inadvertently left a stove burner on in the galley, officials said. The fire started about 1:30 p.m., and smoke pouring from the boat ― St. Peter ― could be seen from several blocks away. The Coast Guard said the fire started during a routine Customs inspection of the vessel. >2 video’s, click to read< 10:44
F/V Mary B II – Public hearing slated on fatal capsizing beginning at 8 a.m. on May 13
An investigation into the fatal capsizing of a boat off the coast of Newport remains ongoing. A public hearing will be held at Newport City Hall beginning at 8 a.m. on May 13. The hearing will focus on the capsizing of the commercial fishing vessel Mary B II, which led to the deaths of three fishermen at the entrance of Yaquina Bay in Newport. On Jan. 8, the three fishermen were approaching the Yaquina Bay Bar aboard the 42-foot Mary B II when it capsized without warning, tossing two overboard into the rough seas, according to a Coast Guard. >click to read< The hearing will be streamed live each day >click here to listen< 11:56
Fishing vessel sinks, leaving fishermen stranded 90-miles off Naples
Three Pinellas County men floating in a raft were rescued by the Coast Guard early Monday morning. The three-man crew left from Fort Myers Beach last Wednesday. They were 90-miles off the coast of Naples, about five days into a two-week-long fishing trip when their boat started taking on water. The first mate said it was terrifying. Working on a 32-foot fishing boat named Miss Saturia, Kyle Haskins said they didn’t have time to react. >click to read<12:45
406 Day: National Campaign for Awareness of EPIRB, Emergency Locator Beacon Importance
Editor’s Note: Coast Guard members in your area may be available to discuss 406 Day and the importance of EPIRBs and PLBs.,,,Saturday, April 6, is 406 Day, a national campaign run by NOAA to spread awareness of the importance of emergency position indicating radio beacons, or EPIRBS, and personal locator beacons, or PLBs, in boating safety. In 2018, the Eighth Coast Guard District responded to over 200 distress signals from EPIRBS aboard aircraft and boats. An EPIRB works by transmitting a signal that is picked up by a satellite and then relayed to a rescue coordination center. >click to read<13:41
Video: Coast Guard medevacs man from fishing vessel 65 miles east of Kodiak, Alaska
The Coast Guard medevaced a man from a fishing vessel approximately 65 miles east of Kodiak, Monday. An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Kodiak hoisted the 38-year-old man, who was suffering symptoms of a heart attack, and transported him to Air Station Kodiak where he was placed in the care of awaiting EMS. He was taken to Kodiak Providence Hospital. >Video, click to read<15:32
Coast Guard study of travel routes underway
The Coast Guard has begun a study of vessel traffic in and around the seven offshore energy lease areas south of the Islands to determine if any new vessel travel routes are necessary to improve navigational safety, according to Tuesday’s notice in the Federal Register.,,, “The study’s future results will provide important information for orderly development of the New England offshore wind area in a way that ensures safe navigation for all mariners.”,,, A vessel transit layout announced in September was from a Massachusetts state government-organized fisheries working group on offshore wind, with one east-west route, one north-south route and one diagonal route. But in early December, Rhode Island commercial fishermen said they needed wider corridors, in the range of 4-miles wide, to safely maneuver their vessels. >click to read<13:11
Karen Jacobsen: Remembering a father lost at sea
When the phone rang in my home on March 23, 2008, I thought it must be my dad calling to wish me a happy Easter. Instead it was my stepbrother, Scott. I didn’t hear much after he said, “Dad’s ship went down.” I found myself fatherless and surrounded by reporters who wanted to know what happened to the ship, how many were on board and what led my dad to the West Coast in the first place. I was just 9 in 1973 when my mother, my little brother, Carl, and I drove my dad, Eric Peter Jacobsen, to Logan Airport and said goodbye. We didn’t see him for three years. He left for Seattle to work with his father on fishing boats. >click to read<19:50
Coast Guard airlifts ailing fisherman 50 miles off Gloucester
An USCG Air Station Cape Cod MH-60 Jayhawk helipcopter crew medevaced an ill 40-year-old fisherman off the fishing boat America, Sunday, approximately 50 miles east of Gloucester. The man was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital for evaluation. >click for video<13:10
Lobster Boat Skipper Sentenced for Manslaughter
United States Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced that Christopher A. Hutchinson, 30, of Cushing, Maine was sentenced in U.S. District Court by Judge D. Brock Hornby to four years in prison and three years of supervised release for Seaman’s Manslaughter for causing the death of two crewmen who were then 26 and 15 years old. Hutchinson pleaded guilty on September 25, 2018. According to court records, on November 1, 2014, after smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol, Hutchinson took his lobster boat, the No Limits, out into a predicted storm with two crewmen aboard. After he had ingested oxycodone, the boat capsized. The two crewmen were not wearing personal floatation devices or survival suits. >click to read<11:44
Sunken boat near Fishers Island monitored for pollution threat
The U.S. Coast Guard and the state Department of Environmental Conservation are assessing potential pollution off the coast of Fishers Island after a “patchy sheen” was seen surrounding a fishing trawler that sank Sunday morning. Two men aboard a commercial fishing boat named “All For Joy” and based out of Hampton Bays issued a distress call about 7:30 a.m. Sunday after they began taking on water in a fish hold. They abandoned the trawler about two hours later and were pulled aboard a Coast Guard rescue vessel a minute before the All For Joy capsized. The boat is owned by Rick Lofstad, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday. >click to read<15:43
Coast Guard crews rescues 2 from sinking fishing vessel near Fishers Island
Crewmembers from Coast Guard Station New London rescued two people after they abandoned their sinking fishing vessel near Fishers Island, New York, Sunday morning. At approximately 7:30 a.m., watchstanders at Sector Long Island Sound received a radio call from the crew of a 55-foot commercial fishing vessel stating their boat was taking on water in one of their fish holds. (Following a telephone inquiry, the vessel was identified as F/V All For Joy.) Video, >click to read<14:10
What caused the F/V Destination to sink? Coast Guard to release findings on Sunday
The Coast Guard on Sunday will release results of its investigation into why, without a mayday call, the Seattle-based Destination sank in 2017 in Alaska’s deadliest crabbing accident in more than a decade. Over the years, Coast Guard investigative reports into fishing disasters have repeatedly spotlighted the hazards of one of the nation’s most dangerous industries, sometimes helping to push reforms but often falling short of bringing major change. All six of the Destination crew were lost on Feb. 11, 2017, and the report is expected to offer the most likely scenario for what happened on a chill day in the Bering Sea when freezing spray was thought to have frozen on the boat. The report also will offer safety recommendations to try to prevent such losses of life. >click to read<15:46
Newport firefighters, Coast Guard extinguish fire sparked by space heater
Firefighters spent hours early Wednesday morning extinguishing a blaze aboard a fishing vessel at Port Dock 5 on Southeast Bay Boulevard. Crews with the Newport Fire Department were dispatched just after 12 a.m. and found heavy smoke coming from the fishing vessel BJ Thomas. Firefighters tried to extinguish the fire using portable dock pumps, but were hampered by extreme heat from the fire, snowy conditions, and by having to force entry into the wheelhouse, fire officials said. >click to read<19:49
Coast Guard aids fishing boat taking on water
The U.S. Coast Guard came to the aid of a fishing boat in danger of sinking early Monday morning. The FV Captain Bligh was “was taking on water and needed help” while in 15- to 20-foot seas 28 miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard, Petty Officer Nicole Groll told The Times. The crew reported their generator failed, Groll said. A Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Cape Cod lowered a dewatering pump to the crew, enabling them to keep the vessel afloat, she said. >Video, click to read<16:24
F/V Mary B II – Coast Guard seeks additional information for investigation
The Coast Guard continues the marine casualty investigation of the fishing vessel Mary B II, which capsized off Newport, Oregon, on Jan. 9, 2019, and resulted in the loss of the three crew members and the vessel. A public hearing will be held in Newport around mid-Spring and it is highly encouraged that anyone with information pertaining to the loss of the Mary B II provide it to the investigation team at [email protected]. >click to read<14:08
Coast Guard, NOAA terminate voyage for illegal fishing in Tortugas Ecological Reserve
The Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration terminated the voyage of the 83-foot commercial fishing vessel, Lady Kristie, with three people aboard Thursday after discovering multiple violations near Tortugas Ecological Reserve. Fishing in an ecological reserve violates NOAA regulations. At approximately 12:30 a.m. the Coast Guard Cutter Isaac Mayo (WPC-1112) crew detected the Lady Kristie within a protected area. >click to read<17:08
DON CUDDY: Local expert diver, Dartmouth’s Steve Cassidy, recalls 1975 Atlantic Sword tragedy
The recent passing of Harriet Didriksen, owner of New Bedford Ship Supply, signifies the loss of yet another link to the city’s long and rich fishing heritage. It was perhaps that sad news which inspired me to seek out another of the old-timers whose lives were spent on the city’s waterfront. South Dartmouth’s Steve Cassidy is a young 91 years of age. He has accumulated, and still retains, an encyclopedic knowledge of the boats, and the men who fished on them, from the SouthCoast area over the last six decades.,,, As I sat in his living room this week he shared some of his memories with me and reflected particularly on a tragedy that is now long-forgotten but one that has never left him. >click to read<19:53
Gulf of Mexico: 14-year Taylor Energy oil leak could be two times larger than BP spill
A toppled oil platform that has been leaking into the Gulf of Mexico for more than 14 years may have released much more oil than recent estimates have indicated, possibly pushing the total volume well beyond BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. New research indicates 2,100 to 71,400 gallons of oil are escaping each day from the Taylor Energy platform site, about 10 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River. The high estimate of 71,400 gallons per day is more than two times larger than the highest potential rate cited by the Coast Guard when it ordered Taylor to fix the problem late last year. >click to read<10:24
Coast Guard investigates sunken vessel in New Bedford Harbor
The Coast Guard is investigating what caused a 45-foot fishing vessel to sink early Sunday morning by steamship pier. The Coast Guard received a call from the owner of the fishing vessel Moonraker at 8:17 a.m., according to the agency. The owner discovered the vessel was submerged about a half hour earlier. >click to read<20:45
Coast Guard assists 17 fishermen off Pacific Northwest Coast since Sunday
Coast Guard crews along the Oregon and Washington coasts assisted 17 fisherman in five responses since Sunday. Response efforts included crews from Coast Guard Station Yaquina Bay, Coast Guard Station Cape Disappointment and Coast Guard Air Facility Newport, in coordination with members at Coast Guard Sector Columbia River and Coast Guard Sector North Bend. The two-person crew aboard the commercial fishing vessel Zephyr,,, >click to read<16:51
Coast Guard medevacs a fisherman 43 miles northwest of Key West
The Coast Guard medevaced a 42-year-old man from a fishing vessel approximately 43 miles northwest of Key West. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Key West received a call via VHF-FM channel 16 at approximately 1:20 a.m., from the 67-foot fishing vessel, Fortuna stating a crewmember was reportedly experiencing chest pains and difficulty breathing. > click to read< 16:23
On This Day: 1-11- 2006, F/V Lady of Grace rescued a year before she sank
On this day in 2006 the Coast Guard towed a 76-foot fishing vessel to safety after the vessel became disabled near Nantucket early Monday morning. The Lady of Grace with four crew members on board, contacted the Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England Command Center at 3:34 a.m. and reported they were without power and drifting approximately 10 miles east of Great Point, Nantucket. A rescue boat crew from Coast Guard Station Brant Point on Nantucket launched a 47-foot motor life boat to take the vessel in tow. >click to read<17:25
Coast Guard was escorting boat when it capsized off Oregon, killing 3 fishermen, 2 from New Jersey
The U.S. Coast Guard was escorting a commercial fishing vessel into an Oregon harbor under heavy seas when it capsized on Tuesday night, killing three fisherman, two of whom were from New Jersey. A 52-foot Motor Life Boat Victory went out to to meet the 42-foot Mary B II near the entrance to Yaquina Bay, the Cost Guard said in a statement. The fishing boat was under its own power in the stormy Pacific Ocean contending with waves of 14-to-16 feet when it capsized just after 10 p.m., officials said. >click to read<11:24
F/V Mary B II: Coast Guard to investigate capsizing on Yaquina Bay Bar in Newport, Ore.
The Coast Guard is investigating the capsizing of the commercial fishing vessel Mary B II, which lead to the deaths of three fishermen at the entrance of Yaquina Bay in Newport, Oregon, Tuesday night. The three fishermen were inbound the Yaquina Bay Bar aboard the 42-foot vessel Mary B II when it capsized without warning tossing two of the fishermen overboard into the stormy Pacific Ocean with reported waves of 14 to 16 feet with occasional waves of 20 feet.Prior to the Mary B II capsizing its crew requested a Coast Guard escort across the Yaquina Bay Bar.,,, >click to read<
Coast Guard rescues fisherman who fell overboard near South Padre Island, Texas
The Coast Guard rescued a man who fell overboard off a 65-foot shrimping vessel near South Padre Island, Texas, Saturday afternoon. A Coast Guard Station South Padre Island boat crew on a routine patrol witnessed a crewmember fall off the 65-foot shrimping vessel Morgan Rae. The boat crew recovered the crewmember and transferred him back onto the vessel. There are no reported injuries. -USCG- 10:02
Adrift fishing vessel towed ashore by USCG in heavy seas
A 78-foot fishing vessel adrift after losing power about 15 miles off the Columbia River entrance Thursday evening was towed to safety by the U.S. Coast Guard after a nearly 20-hour operation in heavy seas, according to a Coast Guard release. The Lisa Marie suffered a loss of steering around 8 p.m. A crew launched a 47-foot motor life boat from Coast Guard Station Cape Disappointment and battled 12- to 16-foot seas and 40-knot winds to reach the vessel and take it into tow. >click to read<10:43
The Sea Is So Great…
The New Year came in on a dour note, wind-driven rain slamming the south-facing windows near the foot of my bed. I would not sleep, I knew, so I stayed up late, reading a book loaned to me several years ago. The bookmark was about four pages in, then I must have put it down before eventually giving it an “I will read you, truly, someday” place on a shelf. It seemed I had been sick forever, the winter cold and everything else that is always “going around” and my normally slow reading pace had been accelerated. It was late, deep into the morning by the clock, the storm on the edge of abating when I finally went upstairs so it was correspondingly late when I first looked at the news on New Year’s Day and saw that a fishing vessel had gone down in that terrible weather a few miles south of Block Island. >click to read<
UPDATE: Coast Guard suspends search for missing fishermen near Block Island, RI
Coast Guard crews suspended their search for two missing fishermen near Block Island, Rhode Island Wednesday at approximately 5:13 p.m. The two fishermen have been missing since their boat Mistress capsized and sank Tuesday morning. The fishing boat Captain Bligh initially responded to the scene and rescued one fisherman from a lifeboat. Crews searched for approximately 72 hours covering 2,152 square nautical miles. -USCG-
Coast Guard suspends search off Block Island for missing fishermen | Video – >click to read<18:06
