Five days later, grounded crabber F/V Arctic Hunter still intact off Unalaska waiting

Maritime Topics Commercial Fishing
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[B]Five days later, grounded crabber F/V Arctic Hunter still intact off Unalaska waiting for salvage [/B]

SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [KUCB] by Annie Ropeik - November
The fishing vessel Arctic Hunter is still on the rocks outside Morris Cove, five days after it first ran aground.
Coast Guard public affairs officer Shawn Eggert says a helicopter conducted another flyover of the boat this morning.
“It is awash,” he says. "It’s basically partially underwater, but it did not break up and it hasn’t sunken."
There’s also no sign of an oil sheen. Salvage crews haven’t been able to pump any fuel off the crab boat since Sunday because of bad weather, which is expected to continue through Thursday.
Eggert says it’s not clear exactly how much fuel the salvagers will have to remove when they make it back to the Arctic Hunter.
“They took 9,000 gallons of diesel-water mix off over the weekend. They believe they have 2,500 to 2,800 gallons left,” he says. "But they still have to figure out how much of that is actually fuel and how much is water."
Eggert says that assessment will be done by tomorrow.
As for the investigation into what caused the grounding, that’s essentially on hold until the Arctic Hunter is recovered from the rocks.
“They want to make sure that they can get the vessel out of there first. They’ll proceed with the investigation, but at this time I couldn’t even speculate as to what sort of charges might be brought up,” Eggert says.
The Coast Guard alleges that the skipper was asleep at the wheel when the boat first ran aground early Friday morning. The man failed a breathalyzer exam in the field, but police have said the skipper – and his crew – claim he didn’t have a drink until after the accident took place.
The 93-foot Arctic Hunter is based out of Kodiak.

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That’s what I like to do after I run aground…Let’s have a drink! Ration of grog for the crew.

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Not showing mercy for anyone but if the captain didn’t have a license which is likely then what does the USCG got on him as long as there isn’t a spill? I suppose there are fines involved but if it can’t be proven that he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the grounding, can the breathalizer results be used for anything? Just wondering?

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Just under the requirements for licensure. A hefty fine may be all that can be done, failure to chemical test after a serious marine incident, neglegent operations of a comercial vessel, etc. Maybe just a fine, unless he does have a license. But their fishing trip ended with a bad day.

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Debris from crabber F/V Arctic Hunter washing up along Morris Cove as seas pummel grounded vessel
SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [KUCB] by Annie Ropeik - November 8, 2013

Rough weather is taking a toll on the grounded fishing vessel Arctic Hunter, which has been stuck on the rocks outside Morris Cove since last Friday.

The 93-foot crab boat has survived a series of storms this week without breaking apart. But salvagers haven’t been able to work on the vessel since last weekend.

Dan Magone of Resolve-Magone Marine Services is in charge of recovery efforts.

“We’ve got seas building out there that are expected to stay [as] big onshore swells until sometime next week, so we’re not too sure when we’re gonna get back out there,” he says.

Meanwhile, Magone says debris like toolboxes and a survival suit from the Arctic Hunter is starting to wash up on the beach. He says he expects the vessel’s condition to keep deteriorating in the bad weather before salvagers can return.

“It basically just beats them apart,” he says. “The bottom gets split open, sometimes the propeller shafts get pulled out through the back and the engines and gears fall out of the bottom, and, you know, it gets pretty ugly.”

Before the weather turned, Magone says his crews pumped out about 9,000 gallons of fuel-water mix from the Arctic Hunter. More than half of that was fuel. Magone says there could still be fuel in some tanks below the water line, but there’s nothing they can do about that until weather calms down.

While they wait, Magone says they’re getting ready for the salvage efforts that will come after they pump out any remaining fuel.

“Right now what we’re doing is gear[ing] up for the wreck removal phase of the project, and so we’re busy getting our small barge set up so that we can use it to support the diving and the other work that we need to do in the shallow waters there.”

At this stage, all the Coast Guard can do to help is monitor the seas for an oil sheen.

Coast Guard public affairs officer Shawn Eggert says once the vessel is off the rocks, the Coast Guard will start digging in to what caused the accident.

“The investigation can take anywhere from a month to a year,” he says. “In this case I don’t expect that it’ll take that long, but I haven’t gotten any kind of an estimate on how long they expect it’ll take.”

So far, the Coast Guard has said the skipper of the vessel might have been asleep at the wheel. And Unalaska’s police department says the skipper failed a breathalyzer test a few hours after the grounding.

Eggert couldn’t say if or when charges might be filed.

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UH OH! Better get MAACO!

First tho they need a big assed crane barge!

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Aye 'Cap. Where is the Orca when we need her?

Who needs a deck barge when you have the Orca…?

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Officials estimate still-grounded crabber Arctic Hunter leaked 6,000 gallons of fuel off Unalaska
SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [KUCB] by Annie Ropeik - November 14, 2013

Two weeks after the Arctic Hunter ran aground outside Unalaska, state officials are estimating that the boat has released up to 6,000 gallons of diesel fuel into the water.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation is basing the estimate on reports from the crew of the crab boat. The crew reported that were carrying five loaded fuel tanks. Salvagers have inspected four of them. Some tanks only contained water, or traces of fuel.
Jade Gamble, with the ADEC, says some were empty, like one that should have contained 3,500 gallons of diesel.
“There’s a hole in the tank, and … they could hear water surging in with the waves,” she says.
Gamble says any lost fuel probably spilled in the first few hours after the accident, and once it was released, the diesel dissipated quickly in rough seas.
“It is harder to see than, like, a crude oil or engine oil or something like that. It doesn’t make as thick a layer,” she says. “And when it’s real silty and real windy and you have waves crashing, it is really hard to identify what’s a sheen and what might just be the surface of the water.”
While it is a pollutant, the diesel couldn’t form a slick like the kind that can coat and harm wildlife.
Gamble says the ADEC may never know exactly how much fuel was lost. But some was recovered: Resolve-Magone Marine Services separated 5,000 gallons of diesel out of a fuel-water mix they pumped out of the crab boat in the days after the accident.
Salvage crews will be looking for fuel in the remaining tank when they return to the wreck late this week. They’ll start trying to get the vessel off the rocks once fuel recovery is complete.