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Coast Guard Medevacs Fisherman Struck by Crane Hook

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Chief Petty Officer Josh Hanneman, coxswain of the Station Chetco River lifeboat, meets the Arctic Storm off Brookings, Oct. 22 (USCG)

Published Oct 23, 2018 7:57 PM by The Maritime Executive

On Monday morning, a U.S. Coast Guard motor lifeboat team out of Chetco River, Oregon evacuated an injured deckhand from the fishing vessel Arctic Storm. The victim, a 64-year-old man, had reportedly been struck in the face by a loose crane hook. 

The Coast Guard Sector North Bend received a call reporting the injury at about 1000 hours Monday morning. The sector's flight surgeon recommended an immediate medevac, and the boat crew got under way to meet the Arctic Storm at a position 25 miles off the coast of Brookings. The boat crew stabilized the injured deckhand, brought him on board and transferred him to emergency medical services personnel on shore. The man's current condition is not known. 

The Arctic Storm is a 330-foot factory trawler based in Seattle, and she works primarily in the Alaskan pollock and Pacific whiting fisheries. She will soon be replaced by a Rolls-Royce-designed newbuild, which will be the first fishing vessel ever built specifically for the U.S. pollock fleet. "All others are conversions from the late 1980s and early 1990s," said Doug Christensen, the CEO of operator Arctic Storm Management Group, speaking to Undercurrent News. 

Divers find body of missing lobsterman

Separately, Coast Guard Sector Northern New England announced Tuesday that divers have found the body of a lobsterman who fell over the side of a small commercial lobster boat near Jonesport, Maine. 

Good samaritans saw the man go overboard on Monday off Doyle Island, Maine, on Monday morning. They reported it to the Coast Guard at about 0915 hours. The USCG launched a wide-ranging search with a small boat crew, an HC-144 SAR aircraft and an MH-60 helicopter out of Air Station Cape Cod. The Maine Marine Patrol contributed an additional boat crew and the Maine State Police provided a dive team. In all, the combined search effort covered more than 230 square nm of water off the Maine coast. 

Divers located the man's body at about 1700 hours on Tuesday, about 200 yards to the west of where he was seen going over the side. The vessel, the Marie Louise II, has been taken to Coast Guard Station Janesport for an investigation. The victim's identity has not been released to the public.