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Tragic Sinking Results In Lawsuit
The Coast Guard received an EPIRB (Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon) signal from the fishing vessel Northern Edge at 4:44 p.m. Monday, indicating the 75-foot New Bedford, Mass.,-based scallop vessel was in distress. Shortly after, the crew of the Northern Edge radioed a mayday reporting the boat had overturned and was sinking. Soon after, another vessel fishing nearby, the Diane Marie, a 91-foot boat also homeported in New Bedford, radioed the Coast Guard to report a fishing vessel in the area was “...either going down or on fire.” Steaming toward the Northern Edge, the Diane Marie captain, Tony Alvernaz, heard in transmissions made available by the Coast Guard, radioed, “All I see is flares…I lost contact on radar.” He later reported he had taken on one survivor, Pedro Furtado of New Bedford, who had escaped to the vessel’s life raft. The Diane Marie then stayed on the scene to assist with the search for the remaining fishermen. Lost were the captain, Carlos Lopes, and his crew, Glen Crowley, Juan Flores, Eric Guillen, and Ray Richards. The weather was not considered extreme for a vessel the size of the Northern Edge, said Coastguardsman Andrew Shinn. The vessel was in moderate seas of 10-15 feet, with winds of 25-35 knots. But the cold was brutal, registering at 5-6 degrees at Air Station Cape Cod and posing problems for the search aircraft. At 5:45 p.m., the Coast Guard launched an HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter which managed to lift off but, hovering above the airfield, discovered that the de-icing system was not functioning. The Jayhawk crew landed and had to take 20 minutes swapping over to a second Jayhawk. The second helicopter completed a three-hour search, but had problems with the radio system throughout. “That didn’t keep them from searching,” Shinn said. “Although it was a little more dangerous, the pilot decided it was more important to be out there.” The helicopter crew returned for a routine swap to a third Jayhawk, which was unable to take off due to a frozen fuel switch. The aircraft had been out of the hangar only 25 minutes or so for fueling, but the cold was intense enough to cause problems. The same crew took the fourth helicopter up at about midnight, but was forced back by an engine problem. A second crew eventually took over at about 3 a.m. An HU-25 Falcon jet was launched at 6:48 p.m. Several Falcons joined in the search over the next two days; one was down due to frozen nose gear. The Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba, a Boston-based 270-foot medium-endurance cutter on patrol in the North Atlantic, was diverted for the search and fought seas of 10-15 feet. Despite freezing spray, the vessel had extra lookouts and lifeboat crews in readiness on the deck. The Coast Guard Cutter Tybee, a 110-foot patrol boat based in Woods Hole, joined the search, as well. Both cutters arrived on the scene at 1 a.m. Tuesday. The Escanaba remained on the scene until the search was suspended. The search for the five missing fishermen was suspended at 12:55 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 22. Six days later, the Boston-based law firm Latti and Anderson filed suit against the company that chartered the Northern Edge, New Bedford-based K&R Fishing Enterprises, on behalf of the rescued crewman, alleging the boat was unseaworthy and the company was negligent. A lawsuit is also being contemplated against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), said attorney Carolyn Latti. Recently implemented fishing regulations, Latti said, are responsible for forcing scallop fishermen to feel they must fish in poor weather, must fish continually during the time allotted to them because of new limitations on opportunities to fish, and must largely disregard maintenance problems because repairs could take up valuable fishing time. The Northern Edge, Latti said, was in an unseaworthy condition, but did not return for repairs because regulations would have prevented them from returning to sea to continue their harvest. “Fishermen rely on the regulations,” Latti said, “but the regulations also create an environment where fishermen are forced to stay out.” The regulations also create an environment, she said, in which needed vessel maintenance is not performed until all of a fisherman’s allotted days-at-sea are used up. “What is the rationale behind penalizing someone for coming in, whether it’s for maintenance or for a weather problem?” Latti said. “There’s a goal of protecting the scallop resource, but there’s also the goal of protecting the safety of the crew.” The Northern Edge was fishing in an approximately 600-square-mile special scallop access program area in the Nantucket Lightship Closed Area. The area, closed to groundfishing but providing a special opportunity for scallop harvesting, is open only from November through January, the most dangerous weather season. Congressman Barney Frank, who represents the fourth district of Massachusetts, wrote to NMFS assistant administrator Bill Hogarth on the day following the sinking, requesting an immediate action “to reduce any penalty associated with the broken trip provision within the scallop fishery.” The NMFS rule prohibits fishing vessels from returning to port and then going back to sea during a given period in which a “one-time” catch is permitted. The rule is widely seen as leaving vessels with little practical choice but to remain at sea, even under dangerous conditions. Frank’s Dec. 21 letter came on the heels of his Dec. 20 letter to Hogarth, sent just prior to the accident and which, in a similar vein, asked for reconsideration of “harsh fisheries regulations that too often compromise the safety of fishermen by presenting economic challenges that can endanger their lives.” The Dec. 20 letter focused on trip termination regulations for special access programs to groundfish species such as haddock; the regulations require that fishing trips into the special access areas must be terminated if a vessel is forced to leave for reasons that might include bad weather. Frank proposed designating Nantucket as a port of shelter during bad weather, then allowing fishermen to re-enter the special access area upon the return of good weather. U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe also asked NMFS to reconsider the rules in light of Northern Edge tragedy. “It is unconscionable for the men and women of our fishing industry to be placed in this untenable position by a rule that does not reflect the statutory obligation of the federal government to protect the safety of fishermen,” Snowe wrote in a letter to Hogarth. “I’m afraid, as is often the case, that this terrible tragedy will be the goad,” said Frank. The Coast Guard’s investigation of the accident is expected to continue for at least several months, said Shinn. |
