An emergency beacon alerted the Coast Guard to the sinking ship just after 11:30 a.m. (12:30 p.m. PDT).
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Two Good Samaritan vessels rescued 46 people Tuesday night who abandoned their sinking fishing boat in the Bering Sea off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, the Coast Guard said.
In May 2012, the crew of the Alaska Juris requested help from the Coast Guard after three crew members were exposed to ammonia after a leak when the ship was just north of Cold Bay, Alaska.
Four vessels, including the Spar Canis bulk carrier, diverted from their routes to help.
She says the ships then embarked on a 13-hour voyage to Adak, Alaska, a port in the Aleutians.
District 17 command duty officer, Lt. Greg Isbell, said: “The crew of the Alaska Juris did the right thing by calling for help, putting on their immersion suits and safely abandoning the ship”.
46 crew members were rescued after they hopped into life rafts off of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. They were transported to Adak and no injuries were reported.
The catcher-processor Alaska Juris can be seen visibly listing as it is taking on water.
Seas in the area were calm with limited visibility, the Coast Guard said.
The U.S. Coast Guard released video this morning of the rescue of several dozen crew members from a capsizing fishing vessel located nearly 700 miles from Alaskan shores. The Coast Guard is also sending two helicopters, and it has a military transport plane in the vicinity.
Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation is monitoring the case closely. “Emergencies can occur at any time in Alaska’s vast and extreme environment, and the good Samaritans’ willingness to respond to the UMIB was paramount to getting the Alaska Juris crew to safety”.
2012 was an especially problematic year since in March a crew member was killed when a trawling cable snapped and smashed the young fisherman against the ship’s floor. The agency flew the trio to Cold Bay, Alaska.
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The Fishing Company of Alaska, based in Renton, owns the 238-foot Alaska Juris that started sinking in the Bering Sea shortly before noon on Tuesday, says a report in Seattle Times. The NTSB concluded that the likely cause was the loss of the vessel’s rudder, with progressive flooding due to poor watertight integrity of internal bulkheads.
