Wrecked Crab Boat Spills Diesel off St. George

Arctic Sea hard aground (courtesy City of St. George)

The rough winter weather of the Bering Sea is getting in the way of the response to the wreck site of a crab fishing boat that grounded on the coast of St. George, and the vessel has begun to leak oil, according to Alaskan officials.

On January 5, the 134-foot crab boat Arctic Sea was under way on a fishing voyage to the north of St. George. In 50-knot winds, she drifted aground on the north side of the island. The crew radioed for help, and the Coast Guard dispatched a helicopter to pull them from the wreck. The situation board was growing urgent, and the crew reported flooding. With a good Samaritan vessel from the same operator's fleet on standby nearby, the Coast Guard aircrew successfully hoisted all nine crewmembers from Arctic Sea and delivered them safely to St. Paul.

At the time of the grounding, Arctic Sea had a load of 11,000 pounds of crab in her holds, plus 50,000 gallons of diesel and 2,000 gallons of hydraulic and lube oil. The prospect of a leak in an environmentally sensitive area of the island's coast was unwelcome, and the operator hired Resolve Marine to address pollution mitigation and salvage. However, the weather has been unforgiving, and salvage crews have not yet been able to approach close enough to intervene, according to local media. It might take until springtime to progress the salvage forward, given the limitations of the site location and the severity of the winter weather, the Alaska DEC said in an update.

In the interim, the state is concerned about the prospects of pollution in the area. The Arctic Sea is leaking diesel fuel, and at one point the slick measured up to eight miles long. Worse would be the prospect of escaping rats. St. George is a rat-free island habitat for seabirds, and the introduction of rats into its landscape would "far exceed the impact of oiling from a spill," Alaska's department of environmental conservation said in an update. Nesting birds are at high risk of predation in an environment where rats have been introduced, the agency warned.