Tag Archives: commercial fishing boat
Coast Guard suspends search for 5 missing fishermen in Southeast Alaska
The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday morning suspended the search for survivors from a Sitka-based commercial fishing boat that capsized early Sunday morning with five people aboard. The Coast Guard said the search for the 52-foot F/V Wind Walker continued for nearly 24 hours and covered more than 108 square nautical miles. The boat’s crew issued a mayday call at 12:07 a.m. Sunday “reporting they were overturning,” the Coast Guard said. Watchstanders in Juneau received no additional response, they said, but the boat’s emergency beacon signal was located near Point Couverden in Icy Strait, southwest of Juneau. On Sunday, the Coast Guard said searchers had located seven cold-water immersion suits and two strobe lights but no signs of any of the people aboard the vessel. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 17:02
US Coast Guard launches search operation for missing fishermen after vessel capsizes in Alaska
F/V Wind Walker, a vessel approximately 50-foot (15-metre) in length, transmitted a distress signal indicating the boat was overturning at approximately 12.10 am. The Coast Guard’s subsequent communication attempts received no response. Search teams located seven cold-water immersion suits and two strobe lights floating in the search zone. The rescue operation encountered severe weather conditions, including heavy snowfall, winds reaching 60 mph (96 kph), and 6-foot (1.8-metre) seas. The Gulf of Alaska region was under an active winter storm warning during this period. According to people aware of the vessel, which departed from Icy Strait just south of Point Couverden, five people were aboard. However, the Coast Guard has yet to verify this number officially. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:14
Coast Guard and good Samaritans search for people on board fishing boat that capsized in seas off Southeast Alaska
The U.S. Coast Guard and good Samaritans, including a state ferry, are searching Sunday for multiple missing people who were on board a commercial fishing boat that reportedly capsized in cold seas in Icy Strait, southwest of Juneau. Five people were thought to be on board based on “reports from individuals familiar with those aboard the vessel,” the Coast Guard said in a statement. Searchers have found cold-water safety gear and other emergency items but no people yet in the search area, according to the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard reported heavy snow and strong winds up to 45-60 mph in the area Sunday, with 6-foot seas. Around 12:10 a.m. Sunday, crew on board the roughly 50-foot-long vessel Wind Walker reported that “they were overturning” in a mayday call that was received by Coast Guard Sector Southeast Alaska watchstanders, the Coast Guard said. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 15:33
Fire heavily damages fishing boat at Squalicum Harbor in Bellingham
A 68-foot fishing boat was heavily damaged by fire early Sunday as it was moored in Squalicum Harbor. Bellingham’s fireboat the Salish Star is moored in the marina nearby and poured water on the blaze, Michaelis told The Bellingham Herald in a phone call. “The Salish Star made the initial attack and its crew was able to get it mostly out,” he said. The boat, called the Alaskan Girl, suffered heavy damage to the top deck, cabin and galley, Michaelis said. It remained afloat. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 12:51
Coast Guard medevacs man from boat 45 miles west of Anna Maria Island
Coast Guard crews medevaced a 51-year-old man from a fishing boat 45 miles west of Anna Maria Island on Friday. An Air Station Clearwater aircrew and a Station St. Petersburg boat crew coordinated the medevac. The man was transported via the aircrew to Tampa General Hospital for further medical care. At 12:23 p.m. Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg watchstanders received a call from the owner of the commercial fishing boat, Team Galati, reporting a crew member had suffered chest pains and was in need of medical attention. “The teamwork of the captain of the distressed vessel, along with our partners at Air Station Clearwater were paramount in ensuring the patient was able to access a higher level of care,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Nick Jennings, a crew member from Station St. Petersburg’s 45-foot Response Boat-Medium boat crew. 06:45
A report has concluded the sinking of a Cadgwith based fishing boat caused by extensive modifications
Skipper Brett Jose and crewman Callum Hardwick were rescued after an ordeal in which Mr Jose had to escape through the wheelhouse window as the 25 foot crabbed suddenly heeled over and capsized. Following the sinking in November 2022 a Crowdfunder was launched by the Cadgwith community to buy a new boat for the pair. The Crig-A-Tana had been fitted with a new wheelhouse, engine, safety kit and deck equipment with the help of Government grants but all had been approved by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. photos, more, >>click to read<< 09:18
Welding accident sparks fishing boat fire on Fairhaven waterfront
A fishing vessel recently acquired by the owners of BASE Seafood Auction caught fire and burned on the Fairhaven side of the harbor early Thursday morning. The 78-foot groundfish trawler F/V Carrabassett was in the process of being decommissioned, according to Fairhaven Harbor Master Tim Cox, who was on scene the morning of the fire working with an environmental cleanup crew. He said the fire was sparked by welders using a cutting torch to carve out the boat’s piping. The welders called in the fire just before 7 a.m., Cox said. Thick clouds of black smoke could be seen rising over the harbor as firefighters from Fairhaven, New Bedford and Mattapoisett worked to knock down the flames using hoses and a foam fire suppressant. The fire, which at its peak had fully engulfed the cabin, was contained by about 8 a.m., Cox said. 6 photos, more, >>click to read<< 20:39
Fairhaven and New Bedford fire crews respond to commercial fishing boat fire in Fairhaven
New Bedford and Fairhaven fire crews are on the scene of a boat fire in a vessels docked at the bottom of Washington and Water streets in Fairhaven Thursday morning. According to a source on the scene, the boat, named the Carrabassett, was under repair when it caught fire. A 2021 report in the Provincetown Banner when the vessel was grounded in Cape Cod waters, states the Carrabassett was previously named Cowboy and was part of a fleet that belonged to “The Codfather,” Carlos Rafael until it was sold to Blue Harvest Fisheries in 2020. more, >>click to read<< 09:30
Commercial fishing boat catches fire in New Bedford, one crew member injured
A boat caught on fire Monday afternoon in New Bedford, according to police. Police received calls around 1:30 p.m. for a vessel on fire new Niemiec Marine. The crew of Engine 7 reported smoke coming from a docked vessel, F/V Madi J.” Due to a lack of nearby hydrants, Marine 38 was utilized to establish a water supply for crews to complete extinguishment. 6 Photos, >click to read< 09:41
The Alaskan Mass Murder Thats Remained Unsolved For More Than 30 Years
In 1982, the F/V Investor, a commercial fishing boat, was set ablaze on an island near Craig, a remote fishing village in Southeast Alaska. The charred remains of eight people were later found onboard: The boat’s owner, Mark Coulthurst, his pregnant wife, Irene, their two young children, and four deckhands; all shot and killed before the boat was burned. By 1984, John Kenneth Peel, a boatyard worker, was arrested for the crime, but later acquitted. Speaking with People in 2017, David McNeill, a former Washington state police detective involved in the investigation, said this is less an indication of innocence than a prosecutorial failure to present sufficient evidence against Peel. >click to read< 09:10
Boat caught fire May 21 in Naknek’s LMI boatyard
The commercial fishing boat F/V Midnight Hour caught fire in Naknek’s LMI boatyard on May 21. No injuries were reported. Boatyard Manager Micaela Emory-Wilson said the fire started around 12:30 p.m. Emory-Wilson said fishermen on a neighboring boat tried to put the fire out with extinguishers and garden hoses while others tried to contact the fire department. But she said GCI customers in Naknek have had trouble calling landlines from their cell phones. “So no one could get through to 911. The call kept dropping,” she said. The fishermen of the F/V Midnight Hour are staying in crew housing for the time being. They still hope to fish on another boat this summer. >click to read< 09:01
Shrimper Design Focuses on Low Fuel Consumption
Designers at Damen Maaskant have done some serious homework and developed new design intended to support operators in tropical shrimp fisheries in staying profitable. The Damen Shrimp Trawler 2607 is a brand-new design, developed as a simple basic standard vessel, to fish (sub)tropical shrimp, and to be a safe and robust vessel with straightforward maintenance and serviceability – and with the focus on low fuel consumption. Photos, >click to read< 19:51
Too Cool for Dinner! White Dungeness crab caught near Seaside is a 1 in 2 million find
A rare all-white Dungeness crab caught off the Oregon coast was spared the dinner plate and donated to the Seaside Aquarium, where staff have fittingly named him … Sour Cream. The crab isn’t actually albino: He has black eyes. Rather, Sour Cream has a rare genetic condition called leucism, which causes a partial loss of pigment. Tiffany Boothe, assistant manager at the Seaside Aquarium, said Sour Cream appeared in a local commercial fishing boat’s crab pot about a month ago. “They kept him separate because it was such a unique crab, and they hadn’t really seen one before,” Boothe said. “When they got in, they just gave us a call to see if we’d be interested in him. They thought he was too cool for dinner.” >click to read<17:26
Future-Proofed Trawler for Hvide Sande
Taking delivery of a new trawler capable of alternating shrimping and targeting flatfish, Hvide Sande fisherman Torben Johansen remains optimisti, but he has few kind words for the current crop of politicians and what he sees as a long list of unfulfilled promises. The back story is that six years ago he ordered a new trawler, Mikkel Louise, to be built at Vestværft. The handover took place in 2020, just as the Covid pandemic hit and although the trawler fished well, the crash in the restaurant sector meant that sales of shrimp and whitefish ground to a standstill. The upshot was that Mikkel Louise was sold to Dutch owners, and Torben Johansen placed an order for a smaller trawler at the same yard. Photos, >click to read< 12:10
Large fishing boat washes ashore in Myrtle Beach during Hurricane Ian
A large commercial fishing boat washed ashore in Myrtle Beach as Hurricane Ian rages on in the Grand Strand. The boat came ashore in the area of Williams Street. According to the Myrtle Beach Police Department, no one was onboard the boat. The city said that the Coast Guard rescued the people onboard. They are urging people to stay away from the boat and there is no reason to go near it. Video, >click to watch< 19:22
‘He kept my head up. He’s the hero’: Three survive sinking of fishing boat in Southeast Alaska
Howard Starbard knew he had a problem when the pumps couldn’t keep up with the water pouring into his 37-foot commercial fishing boat, Miss Amy. The 63-year-old retired Alaska State Troopers commander couldn’t know he was about to spend 45 minutes in the sea, fighting to stay afloat before a relative, two Good Samaritan vessels and the U.S. Coast Guard intervened to help him survive his boat’s sinking off the Southeast Alaska community of Pelican. Starbard was power trolling for king salmon during a commercial opener Monday with his 13-year-old grandson and 35-year-old nephew about three miles off the west coast of Chichagof Island. It was the first day the Miss Amy had been out all summer. Then the high-water alarm sounded. >click to read< 16:11
Commercial Fisherman/Businessman Jared “Jerry” Trussler of New Zealand
Jared “Jerry” Trussler was born on August 21st, 1938 to Fern and Arthur Trussler in Paso Robles, California and passed away peacefully at his home in Kerikeri, New Zealand on June 24th, 2022. He grew up in San Luis Obispo and Santa Clara Counties and graduated from San Luis Obispo High School with the class of 1956. In 1957, Jerry went to Alaska to work on a commercial fishing boat in the Bering Sea, which he described as the most pivotal point in his career, and he continued to return to Alaska as a commercial fisherman for over 30 years. Jerry also became a commercial abalone diver and obtained his pilot instructor’s license. In 1965, Jerry started a welding company focused on building steel commercial fishing vessels, but later moved on to manufacturing steel water tanks up to 10 million gallons in size for municipalities all over California. >click to read< 21:45
Keweenaw County Sheriff’s Office continues search for fuel theft suspects
The Keweenaw County Sheriff’s Department thinks high fuel costs may have motivated someone to siphon gas from a commercial fishing operation last week. On Thursday, a gas spill occurred on the eastern shore of Lac La Belle. Deputies from the Keweenaw County Sheriff’s Department responded to the scene. “When we got there we discovered approximately 20 to 30 gallons of fuel had spilled into Lac La Belle,” Keweenaw County Sheriff Curt Pennala said. Pennala said suspects snipped the fuel lines of a mostly empty 275-gallon fuel tank attached to a parked commercial fishing boat. According to Pennala, they managed to escape from the scene with some fuel, while the rest leaked into the lake. Pennala said he suspects a potential motive may be related to continued high gas prices. >click to read< 21:41 stolen fuel
It could have been worse. Commercial fishing boat metres from crash impact
A commercial fisherman says his family’s vessel, the Dell Richey II, was fortunate not to get caught up in the crash involving cement carrier Goliath and two tugboats at the Devonport wharf. Mr Richey said his son John the skipper of the Dell Richey II, was on board when it happened, along with some of the crew members. “When he saw what was happening, he started the engine. The crew on board got the lines off. They managed to get the boat away from the wharf before getting tangled up in the wreckage,” he said. Mr Richey said it could have been even worse if it happened 24-hours earlier. >click to read< 08:54
Fire guts commercial fishing boat but spares injury
A man escaped injury in a boat fire last week in the Ilwaco marina. The F/V Tlingit Princess was billowing smoke from the cabin as authorities descended on the scene early Sunday afternoon at the Port of Ilwaco. Owner Earl Soule was the lone occupant on board at the time of the fire and was able to safely evacuate. “Everything I’ve got is in there,” Soule said as he watched the Ilwaco Fire Department douse flames flickering through the cabin windows. photos, >click to read< A GoFundMe campaign has been established. – Help Earl Soule rebuild after the fire – Please, donate if of you can and help them meet their goal. >click here< 14:46
Hearts broken and fears realized when the Saulis crew didn’t come home – A Year Later
Dec. 15 marks the one-year anniversary of the sinking of F/V Chief William Saulis scallop vessel, a tragedy that took the lives of six men and forever changed the lives of so many more. We still think about the crew. We still think about their families. We still think about the fishing communities that are deeply touched and heartbroken when those who make their living on the water do not come back home. Those aboard were Capt. Charles Roberts, Aaron Cogswell, Daniel Forbes, Michael Drake, Geno Francis and Leonard Gabriel. It was reported there had been no distress call made. photos, >click to read< 17:59 By Tina Comeau
Fifteen Month Build
‘It’s a huge difference compared to the old F/V Baldvin,’ skipper Arnar Óskarsson said, when the new trawler had left the storm behind and had a day’s steaming to go to dock in Keflavík. 15 metres longer than its predecessor and has an extra four metres of beam, F/V Baldvin Njálsson performed well on the way home, although the route back to Iceland involved taking a long detour out to sea to sidestep the heaviest weather. ‘We have even had the owner on board for the delivery trip. She’s 82 years old, and decided to take a trip to Spain and come home with us,’ he said. photos, >click to read< 09:44
DFO’s vessel length restrictions are hurting business and putting fish harvesters’ lives at risk
Patey’s Venture has the look of a well-designed fishing boat, with smooth flanks meeting a nicely-curved bow. Yet there’s something amiss, an anomaly that’s as impossible to ignore as a missing tooth in an open-mouthed smile. For the Pateys, who needed a boat with some extra deck space to handle crab pots, it was more economical to buy and reconfigure a used boat than invest in a new boat. The Pateys had a licence that put them in the under-40 LOA class. Patey spent several thousand dollars to eliminate those two feet, “Our boat was an excellent boat. And when we … followed the regulations set by DFO we made her worse than she was,” photos, >click to read< 11:10
Maine: Fire roars through fishing boat in Rockland
A commercial fishing boat was heavily damaged Tuesday night when a fire roared through the vessel while parked at a boatyard. The F/V Dark Star was ablaze when the first crews arrived shortly before 9:30 p.m. Nov. 30 in a parking lot of Journey’s End Marina on Tillson Avenue. Flames were shooting high in the sky and thick smoke was pouring from the vessel. Photos, >click to read< 22:21
300-pound stingray attacks man off NY coast
A boat crewman was jabbed by a 300-pound stingray off the New York coast, forcing the U.S. Coast Guard to launch a daring helicopter rescue in the dark late Sunday. It happened about 40 miles southwest of Montauk, according to a news release. The man was working aboard the Shelby Ann, a commercial fishing boat, when he “was struck by a stingray barb below the knee” and began going into shock, officials said. Video >Click to read< 09:16
Commercial fisherman rides out Hurricane Ida in his boat before 140 mph winds flipped it
Kimothy Guy, 57, is one the few people who did not evacuate from the coastal shrimping, crabbing and fishing community ahead of Ida’s arrival Aug. 29. He and three others in the immediate vicinity rode out the storm on their fishing boats in an attempt to save their livelihoods. Instead, the commercial fishers barely lived to tell the tale, as their boats snapped free from the ropes tying them to the shore and flipped over during the Category 4 hurricane. “We had four of us, me and three others, that had stayed to try to save our boats, but we didn’t save none of them,” Guy said, 
noting that if he knew then what he does now, he would have evacuated. “Now I know we don’t have nothing to stay for. We don’t have no more house. We don’t have no more boat.” “I ain’t got no choice. I have to stay,” Guy said. “That’s all I ever did all my life, commercial fish. That’s what I do for a living. I’m a water person. I need the water to survive.” photos, >click to read< 17:13
Customs Crackdown: U.S. blocks Fiji fishing boat from unloading, citing forced labor and debt bondage
Customs officials have blocked a commercial fishing boat from bringing tuna and other seafood into the United States, citing what they said was the use of forced labor by its operator, a company based in Fiji. The Customs and Border Protection agency said on Wednesday that it had found that operators of Hangton No. 112,a long-liner owned by the Hangton Pacific Co. Pte Ltd., had withheld workers’ wages, kept their identity documents and subjected them to debt bondage. If the vessel tries to dock at a U.S. port, or distribute its cargo in the country, officials said, its cargo would be held until its operator could prove that the fish were not caught using what the agency has described as “modern-day slavery.” >click to read< 10:35
Tuna Longliner Mira Š: the newest addition to Klokan Fishing, based at Port Stephens in New South Wales
When blessing a new boat, it’s considered bad luck if the bottle of champagne doesn’t break. As luck would have it, when 16-year-old Mira Skoljarev swung the bottle hard at the Mira Š tuna longliner named after her, the bottle didn’t do what was expected of it. Building the boat was a little over a two-year journey, stretching from April 2019 to May 2021. ‘It was blood, sweat, and tears – literally. Mira Š was designed by Oceantech in Adelaide 
and built by CTB Industries in Kooragang, Newcastle. The internal fit-out was done over five months by an army of tradespeople, and John. Video, photos, At the boat’s helm is skipper Dieter Wagener, who moved with his wife to Australia from South Africa in January 2021. >click to read< 20:46
“Sailing Back To the Bay” trip gets closer to launch
The launch of No. 76, a 29-foot restored Libby, McNeil and Libby double-ender sailboat once used for commercial fishing in Bristol Bay, and its journey in the decades-old wake of fishing boats traveling from Homer to the bay have been rescheduled for 2022. The delay was fortuitous, allowing time for Frank Schattauer Sails of Seattle to complete a new sail that was hoisted on the vessel’s single mast by Dave Seaman and friends on July 3, in the NOMAR parking lot. Seaman oversaw the restoration work and will captain No. 76 when it makes its voyage a year from now. “(The vessels) had keels and ribs of white oak, planking of Port Orford, Oregon’s yellow cedar, and were sprit-rigged with a wing-shaped sail,” said Seaman. “Belying their sweet lines, these boats were built for work.” photos, >click to read< 14:44
Harvesting the sea
Working out of six major fishing ports, New Jersey fishermen rank No. 1 in the nation when it comes to landing clams, scallops, squid and Atlantic mackerel. “It supports thousands of jobs.’’ Fishermen are the heart and soul of this industry, risking both life and livelihood to land the fish that feed their families, and millions of Americans. “Commercial fishermen are some of the hardest working people,’’ said Wayne Reichle, president, Lund’s Fisheries in Cape May. “They are paid on what they harvest. If they go out to sea and don’t catch anything, they don’t make anything. They take a lot 
of risk both financially and personally.’’ “In the winter, our guys go anywhere from 75 to 150 miles offshore,’’ said Dave Tauro, manager of Belford Seafood Co-Op in Highlands. “It takes them sometimes 18 hours. Imagine what the fuel cost is. They spend three grand before they leave the dock.’’ photos, >click to read< 13:45
