The tow boat BEAR CAT has been involved in a collision with a small pleasure craft on the Tennessee River. Only one of three persons aboard the small craft survived the accident. Early reports about the June 19, 2010 accident indicate that neither the tow boat nor the small boat…
A Seattle woman has been killed aboard a construction barge in Seattle. The woman’s relationship to the construction barge working in Seattle’s Elliott Bay is unknown. The death was reportedly the result of the woman being hit in the head by a crane on the barge. The barge was moored…
Wesley Keller, a member of the Alaska State House of Representatives, and Vice Chair of the Alaska House Fisheries Special Committee, was cited June 11, 2010, for an illegal sport fishing violation. Keller was fishing with two poles near the entrance to Halibut Cove in Kachemak Bay. He was issued…
The Federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has recently held that an undocumented immigrant who is injured at work is not excluded from receiving benefits under the Longshore Harbor Workers Act. In Bollinger Shipyards v. U.S. Department of Labor et al., 2010 WL 1614594 (2010) an alien without proper working…
Four people were rescued from the Grays Harbor Jetty after their small pleasure boat ran aground Saturday. The Coast Guard responded to a May Day call from the vessel after it had run aground on the jetty. All four persons were able to safely make it to the jetty. The…
The clam dredge ESS PURSUIT has been ordered to return to port, and its catch isolated, after they discovered 10 mystery containers today while working in Hudson Canyon. One container broke open and exposed two crewmen to the contents. They subsequently developed blisters and difficulty breathing. The crewmen were taken…
Looking out the window of the maritime law office of Beard Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC, it was impossible to miss two of the Deadliest Catch featured crab boats tied up in front of its office. Both the ROLLO and the KODIAK have been docked at the west wall of Fisherman’s…
A Hong Kong flagged bulk carrier, LUZON STRAIT, lost engine and generator power outside the entrance to the Columbia River Bar on Thursday. The Columbia River Bar pilot on board the ship was able to safely anchor the vessel outside the shipping channel. The cause of the loss of power…
The crew of the LUCY M, a 51-foot wooden fishing boat, radioed the Coast Guard they were taking on water and needed help. Two motor life boat crews were dispatched to assist the vessel. Initially, the crew tried to beach the vessel on a shoal, but the task proved too…
Under the Jones Act, the evidentiary proof a seaman needs to present to establish a causal connection between his employer’s negligence and his injury is very slight. A Louisiana Appellate Court has reaffirmed this standard in Bancroft v. Mitchell Offshore Marine, 2010 WL 198219 (2010 La. App. 3 Cir.). The…