Articles Posted in Offshore Injury

January 9, around 4:00 p.m., the captain of MISS AUBREY ANN, a 100-foot offshore supply vessel hailing out of Broussard, LA, contacted the Coast Guard for help. One of their crew had apparently had caught his foot in a line, resulting in his foot being severed. MISS AUBREY ANN was about five miles off Louisiana at that time.

The Coast Guard responded with a helicopter medevac, and transported the injured man to Lake Charles Memorial Hospital. The 27-year-old man’s name or current condition have not been released, but at the time, he was reported as stable.

An injured crewman suffering from internal injuries has been airlifted from the 285-foot fishing vessel AMERICAN TRIUMPH. The vessel, part of the American Seafoods fleet, was fishing 30 miles west of Coos Bay off of the Oregon Coast Sunday. The unidentified crewman was listed as being 37 years old. The call for help came at 3:30 P.M. The crewman was evacuated by a Coast Guard motor life boat crew and transported to Bay City where he was ambulanced to the bay area hospital. The crewman was reportedly treated and released from the hospital for further follow up care as may be needed.

The Coast Guard in Boston was notified Tuesday, July 12 by the crew of the stern trawler CAPTAIN MARK that a crewman required assistance for an arm laceration 54 miles east of Merrimack River. A Coast Guard Station Gloucester rescue boat and crew responded to the call.

Medical personnel assessed the injured crewman, then transferred him to the Coast Guard rescue boat where he was safely taken to Gloucester Harbor. The crew was met at shore by local emergency medical services for transport to a hospital. Due to the laceration and blood loss, officials were worried that the crewman might lose the limb. Published reports do not indicate what caused the laceration, and the fisherman’s condition at this time is unknown.

Coast Guard Sector Charleston was notified Thursday, June 30 by Alan Carl, 45, asking for medical assistance after sustaining an injury while fishing around the mouth of the North Santee River near Georgetown, SC. Officials said the man’s arm was severed at the shoulder, possibly by the winch on board the shrimp boat. A Coast Guard helicopter crew from Air Facility Charleston arrived on scene and transported Carl to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Carl was listed in fair condition on Friday, July 1.

March 25, 2007: A 48-year-old man, Hal Pulfer, was killed aboard a 55-foot whale watching catamaran in Maui, when the mast broke and struck him in the head. Two additional passengers were injured and taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center.

The Kiele V was on a whale watching cruise with 52 people aboard, two miles off Kahana Beach, when the incident occurred. At 5:09 pm the crew called for help, reporting the mast had broken and they were having trouble controlling the boat in 40-knot winds and rough seas. Nearby catamarans, the Gemini and the Teralani 3, came to the rescue, and found the Kiele V sideways and being dragged underwater by its collapsed mast and sails. They saw blood all over the right side of the boat where the deceased had been hit. The captain of the Kiele V was frantically attempting to cut through the rigging with a hacksaw, while passengers with lifejackets bunched at the driest part of the boat. The Coast Guard and a Maui Fire Department helicopter arrived shortly after to assist with evacuations.

The Kiele V, owned by Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa, had experienced two broken masts before. No one was injured in the previous incidents. An investigation of the incident is on-going.

October 12th, 2006: A tugboat, Miss Megan, and an unidentified barge, reportedly struck a natural gas pipeline in West Cote Blance Bay, Louisiana, and caught fire. Four people died, two were rescued, and two remain missing. The incident is being investigated by the Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board.

Information taken from USCG Site

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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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.