Haines harbour. (Photo Credit: Alaska Clean Harbors)

Ocean Beauty Seafoods charter ship sinks, causes oil spillage

 A ship moored at Haines Harbour, caused a fuel spill when it started to sink last Saturday morning and to spill oil hours later.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Coast Guard Juneau Sector arrived at the scene at midday the same day to assess the issue caused by the vessel, named Neptune, a 76-foot fishing boat chartered as a tender by Ocean Beauty Seafoods, reports Phil Benner, Haines harbour master.

Although authorities cannot precise how much of the ship’s 2,000 gallons of fuel have leaked into the sea, the incident has, nevertheless, caused an environmental problem. Fortunately, nobody was hurt at the time of the incident.

“Everybody’s moving as fast as we can but we want to make sure we aren’t contaminating Lynn Canal by opening up the harbor,” Benner told KHNS Haines.

The master added that divers were able to close off some areas of the ship to prevent more fuel leaking.

Lt. Ryan Erikson, with the Juneau Sector Coast Guard remarked that spill response is not affected by the federal government shutdown.

Benner and his team had to axe the lines so that the dock did not sink with the boat. Oil containment booms were placed at the harbour’s entrance and shut the harbour to ship traffic.  

DEC officials and the Coast Guard met with Randy Bachman, the local ADF&G commercial fisheries biologist, and concluded that the salmon opener could carry on the following day. Despite this, each boat will have to be decontaminated and washed before it leaves the station. Fish and Game have also adjusted the district open to fishing and changed a boundary line further south from Haines harbour.  

At the time of the incident, the Neptune was planning on leaving for the fishing grounds in the Lynn Canal on Sunday together with the fishing fleet.

SEAPRO cleaning company has been hired for the job by the ship’s owner.  

Benner feels confident the ship will be recovered and explained the causes of the accident are being investigated by the US Coast Guard.

By Gabriela Raffaele
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

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