Alaskan Fishing Operator Faces $1.2 Million Fine for Oil Discharges
Last week, a federal court fined a vessel operator in Alaska nearly $1.2 million for multiple alleged violations of the Clean Water Act. Corey Potter, manager of three fishing tender companies, was found in default in a civil enforcement suit alleging repeated bilge water discharges from the vessel Knot EZ in 2022.
Knot EZ is a tender homeported in Kodiak and used for offloading fish from commercial vessels in the Bristol Bay and Bering Sea fisheries. In commercial operation, it would take on fishing vessels' catch, transfer back supplies, then transport the fish to processing plants along the coast.
In July 2022, the Coast Guard received a distress call from the Knot EZ, which had lost power and was sinking at anchor in Kodiak Harbor. On boarding the vessel, the Coast Guard determined that the hull was leaking heavily.
Given the "degraded" condition of the vessel, the Captain of the Port declared Knot EZ a threat to the marine environment and to navigational safety, and the Coast Guard launched an investigation. On closer scrutiny, inspectors found that the crew had a regular practice of pumping out the engine room bilge water over the side, without prior treatment to remove oil content. This happened as often as once a day, and it allowed the vessel to continue operations without hauling out for permanent hull repairs, the Coast Guard alleged. After this discovery, the vessel was taken out of service and "removed from the ocean," the Coast Guard said.
"The defendants’ illegal pollution practices and endangerment of their own crew could have been readily prevented through proper operation and maintenance of the vessel. Commercial fishing vessel owners and operators must take care to operate safely and prevent oil discharges into our nation’s waters," said Capt. Christopher Culpepper, commander of Sector Western Alaska and U.S. Arctic.
The defendants would not negotiate on a resolution of the violations identified in the inspection, the Coast Guard said, so in 2024 the service filed a federal lawsuit against Potter and his three companies. After Potter and his companies failed to answer a summons for the case, Judge Sharon L. Gleason entered a default judgment against all of them. The total came to $1.18 million.
Potter also faces multiple unpaid-wage lawsuits from former crewmembers, including at least one other suit in which a judge entered a default declaration.
Criminal charge
Corey Potter has also agreed to plead guilty to two federal charges for ordering the transportation of a live crab catch out of state. Under his direction, the crabbers Arctic Dawn and Gambler opted not to land their crab catch in Alaska - a state requirement - but instead transported the entirety south to Washington in search of a better price. Part of the crab cargo in question was infected with Bitter Crab Syndrome, a parasitic disease fatal to crabs. (It is safe for human consumption but unpalatable, and has no market value.) All of it was ultimately transferred to Washington state officials and landfilled on arrival. The out-of-state transport without landing on a fish ticket was a violation of Alaska law, and therefore a violation of the Lacey Act.
According to prosecutors, Potter has lost one vessel at sea: Ambition, which flooded and foundered due to a hull leak in the lazarette in July 2016, according to NTSB. Three others required emergency response: Knot EZ; Guardian Angel, which lost propulsion "due to lack of proper maintenance" in 2019, resulting in a rescue at sea; and Gambler, which took on a heavy list due to icing in 2022, spilled fuel into Akutan Harbor two months later, and ran aground in 2024.
"The defendant’s track record as a vessel operator in Alaska is abysmal. He has shown a total disregard for the safety of his crew, the safety of Alaskan waterways, and the health of the marine environment," prosecutors said, recommending an 18-month prison term for the Lacey Act violation.