Boat on the sea
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A vessel with two men aboard capsized Saturday at the mouth of Willapa Harbor. The body of one man has been recovered, and the other man remains missing. The Coast Guard has suspended the search for the missing man. Few facts are currently known about the accident. After the vessel capsized, one of the men was able to send a 911 call via a cell phone reporting the accident. He reported that both of them were in the water and not wearing life jackets. Search of the area turned up a debris field, but the missing man was not located.

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In many cases involving injured fishermen, during litigation to obtain compensation for the crewman under the Jones Act, the fishing company attempts to block and obstruct the crewman from getting information necessary to prepare his case for trial.

A Washington State Superior Court Judge in King County has recently ordered an Alaska fishing company to designate a witness to testify regarding their comparative fault defense. The fishing company had refused to designate a witness for the corporation, claiming the evidence on which they based their comparative fault argument was attorney work product. In essence what the fishing company was attempting to do was hide behind the corporate structure – refusing to articulate a position on comparative fault in discovery, only to have its lawyer make the argument at trial. In ordering the company to produce the witness, the Court rejected the fishing company’s argument, noting that it would defeat the discovery process. Requiring a witness to be produced under Rule 30(b)(6) is not necessarily objectionable merely because the identified subjects about which the witness is to testify involve an opinion or contention that relates to fact or application of law to fact. Beard Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC represented the injured crewman in this case, Masterson v. Unimak Vessel, LLC, Superior Court for King County Cause No. 09-2-30167-SEA. This case is set for jury trial in January, 2011.

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Tom Webster, a 26-year old deckhand aboard the fishing vessel CAPE RELIANT, has been medevaced to a hospital in Anchorage for treatment of head injuries. Webster was reportedly injured around 4:20 p.m. on Tuesday when the 58-foot fishing vessel he was working on was approximately 55 miles northeast of Dutch Harbor, Alaska. The Coast Guard Cutter ALEX HALEY was just ten miles away from the CAPE RELIANT when it initially received the call for medical help. They dispatched medical corpsmen and an EMT to help Webster and then called for evacuation by helicopter. The injured crewman was taken to Dutch Harbor, where he was subsequently transferred via Guardian flight service to Anchorage. The CAPE RELIANT is home ported in Petersburg, Alaska. The facts and circumstances surrounding Webster’s injury are unknown.

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The Coast Guard has called a halt to the search for a crewman who fell overboard off a sail boat in the Columbia River. The 46-year old sailor was lost on Sunday when he fell off the 65-foot sailboat BAD DOG near Kelly, Oregon. Despite an air and sea search by the Coast Guard, the man was unable to be located. The man was reported to not be wearing a life jacket at the time of the accident.

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Early Friday a fish processor suffered a serious hand injury while working aboard the fish processing vessel PACIFIC GLACIER. The crewman was medivaced from the vessel by a Coast Guard Helicopter. The 46-year old crewman, Mamadou Konato, was working 40 miles southwest of Coos Bay aboard the 276-foot PACIFIC GLACIER when the accident occurred. Under Federal Safety Regulations, the Coast Guard is charged with the duty to investigate all serious accidents involving crewmen working aboard fishing vessels.
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The U.S. Coast Guard has concluded its examination of the January 3, 2009 sinking of the PATRIOT fishing vessel, finally resolving that a rapid loss of stability most likely forced the boat to capsize and sink. Last year, two men were aboard the 54-foot steel-hulled trawler about 15 miles from the port of Glouster, Massachusetts, when their boat sank after an apparent catastrophic failure.
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Sitka Mountain Rescue with the assistance of the Coast Guard rescued a man from his sinking fishing vessel in Sitka Sound last week. The 74-year-old master stated that his boat was taking on lots of water just off Kulichkof Rock. Sitka Mountain Rescue personnel arrived at the scene and managed to recover the man moments before his 44-foot Wrangell-based trawler sank.

Once rescued and aboard another boat, the master was treated for cold weather exposure and taken to the Sitka Community Hospital; he fortunately appears to be in good health.

It is unknown at this time how much diesel fuel was on board the vessel when it submerged; the maximum tank capacity is 1,400 gallons. Personnel from the Marine Safety Detachment Sitka were on site to look for and contain any visible pollution.

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Crew Rescued from Grounded Vessel in Gastineau Channel, Alaska The 34-foot fishing vessel PEGGE, a trawler based out of Pelican in Southeast Alaska, grounded in the Gastineau Channel near Juneau late Tuesday night. The Juneau-based Coast Guard command center received the initial notification of the grounding and arrived to the scene a mere twenty-five minutes later.

Fortunately, there were no injuries aboard, damage to the vessel or pollution. The three person crew stayed on board the vessel in an attempt to refloat the boat; their efforts proved to be unsuccessful. The crew was eventually removed from the fishing boat and is currently resting in Juneau. They plan to return to the vessel as soon as possible to try to refloat it again.

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Coast Guard aircrews based in Kodiak, Alaska, flew 1,800 miles to conduct a successful medical evacuation of Aung Bo Bo Htay, an injured oiler on the BK CHAMP, a 580-foot South Korean bulk carrier. Htay, a Burmese national, seriously injured his hand in the vessel’s engine room. The Coast Guard District 17 command center received a phone call from the BK CHAMP reporting Htay’s injury and requesting a medevac.

The Coast Guard launched two Kodiak-based helicopters, which were forced to rest overnight in Dutch Harbor because of the great distance between Kodiak and Adak. One of the helicopters successfully gathered Htay and transferred him to emergency medical services in Adak; soon after he was transported to Anchorage for further treatment.

Though Htay suffered a serious hand injury as a result of the accident in the engine room, he is in good health otherwise. The lawyers at Beard Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC have handled various maritime personal injury cases of all sorts, including hand injuries very similar to Htay’s in this article. If you have a question about this article or any maritime injury, feel free to call one of the lawyers at Beard Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC.

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Federal regulators proposed new commercial fishing restrictions in the Aleutian Islands last month in an attempt to aid the declining population of the Steller sea lion. The federal Marine Fisheries Service plans to close all commercial fishing for Atka mackerel and Pacific cod around Attu, the farthest island in the Aleutian chain. It also proposed restrictions but not a complete ban for the same fish in the central islands of the chain, west of Dutch Harbor. The fisheries service stated the closures are needed to reduce the competition between fishermen and sea lions in search of food.
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Contact Information
Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC Seattle, Washington
4039 21st Ave W. #401
Seattle, WA 98199
Phone: 206-282-3100 Toll Free: 877-332-5529 Fax: 206-282-1149
Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC Anchorage, Alaska
205 E Benson Blvd #321
Anchorage, AK 99503
Phone: 907-751-2588 Toll Free: 877-332-5529

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