Maritime Injury Law Blog

Published on: February 24, 2006

Sinking of Crab Boat at Tillamook Bar May Be Due to Jetty Miscalculation

At 1:30 am on February 7, 2006, the Coast Guard received a VHF call. Two red flares were spotted near Tillamook Bay, Oregon. A Jayhawk helicopter and two 47-foot motor lifeboats were dispatched to the area.

Debris was found identifying the vessel as the Catherine M., a 45-foot crabber whose homeport was Warrenton, Oregon. The body of Jeff King, 30, of Garibaldi, was also found on a nearby beach by a local rescue team, along with a life raft and three survival suits. The bodies of Trona Griffin 30, of Garibaldi, Oregon, and Craig Larson, 31, of Hammond, Oregon, washed ashore in the days following.

The last contact from the crew came the night before the incident, when Craig Larson’s wife spoke to him by phone. She was told the boat was returning to port with around 1,200 pounds of crab.
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Published on: February 24, 2006

Sinking Presumed in Disappearanch of 50-foot Northern Dawn

by Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC

At 5:31 am on February 23rd the Coast Guard received an electronic position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) from the Northern Dawn. Beacons are triggered when they hit saltwater. The signal placed the vessel at two miles off the Bering Sea side of Unalaska Island. Unalaska Island is about 800 miles southwest of Anchorage.

An Urgent Marine Information Broadcast was issued immediately. A C-130 aircraft, an HH-60 helicopter, the Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley and its helicopter, were dispatched to the area. A nearby fishing vessel, the Pinnacle, also took part in the search.

The searchers found a life ring and the EPIRB. They also located a small oily sheen in the water. The vessel and the men were not found.
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Published on: February 18, 2006

Accident on fishing boat takes off most of young man’s right hand

by Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC

A 23-year-old man lost most of his hand on a fishing vessel near Akutan Island on Monday night, the Coast Guard said.

Louis Acosta was on the 120-foot Trailblazer, homeported in Newport, Ore., when the incident occurred near the island, Lt. Mara Booth-Miller said. She said the Coast Guard was still investigating and it did not immediately know how the accident happened.

Booth-Miller said the boat was fishing for Alaska Seafood Producers.

Published on: November 3, 2005

Coast Guard Medevacs Man with Severe Head Injury

by Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC

Coast Guard Station Provincetown and Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod responded and medevaced a man on board the 67-foot fishing vessel Sao Jacinto, two- and-a-half miles west of race point near Provincetown, Mass.

The injured man on board the New Bedford, Ma. fishing vessel is Orlando Costa, 42. He suffered a severe head injury. Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod is taking him to Massachusetts General Hospital. His condition is unknown. The rescue helicopter crew is scheduled to arrive at the hospital about 6:45 p.m. today

Source: Military.com, November 3, 2004

Published on: October 23, 2005

Woman loses legs after equipment she was cleaning suddenly powered up

by Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC

The Coast Guard is investigating an accident on the high seas aboard a Bering Sea fish processor in which a pregnant woman had both legs mangled so badly in a piece of equipment they had to be amputated.

Rose Bard was cleaning a vat used for processing fish paste aboard the Seattle-based Excellence when, inexplicably, power to the augers at the bottom of the container was turned on. The churning screws trapped Bard’s feet and legs, drew them deep into the machinery and mauled them, according to Bard, the owner of the ship and the Coast Guard.

Lt. Court Smith, chief of the Coast Guard’s investigating department in Alaska, said the agency is investigating the accident on the 370-foot boat owned by Supreme Alaska Seafoods Inc.