Work to remove sunken Aleutian Isle continues

The Aleutian Isle remains in about 200 feet of water on the west side of San Juan Island near Sunset Point. Monday, Aug. 29, salvaging it was about to begin, after a boat and crew from Global Diving & Salvage arrived Sunday, said Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson. He confirmed the 49-foot fishing boat is owned by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community.

The barge and crane were secured Sunday, preparing for the 10-day effort to raise the sunken vessel, place it on the barge and remove it to a safe spot to remove pollutants, Strohmaier said.

"This is the best course of action to ensure the removal of as much pollutants and contamination as possible from the environmentally sensitive area," a Coast Guard statement read last week.

The rescue operation is starting its third week. The schedule has been dictated by environmental conditions. Diving to 200 feet requires a specialized gas mixture of hydrogen and oxygen. Produced in Seattle, it had to settle, be tested and shipped to the rescue site.

Currents in the region will dictate how fast the rescue can go. "Divers can only go down at flat tides, when current is at its most minimal movement," Strohmaier explained. Those periods are of limited duration. Weather and tidal currents will limit their window for safely diving the wreck each day.

Diving at that depth limits the amount of time divers can work at the vessel and necessitates using a decompression chamber upon returning to the surface.

Once divers can get down there properly to hook up the boat, they will lift up the vessel via the crane,

The boat sank in about 100 feet of water Aug. 13. By Aug. 15 it shifted and dropped to about 200 feet below the surface.

On Aug. 17, a drone, a Remote Operated Vehicle, was deployed and provided additional information, the Coast Guard reported. The Aleutian Isle was upright at over 200-feet below the surface. It is oriented bow up on a slope with the bow at approximately 210-feet of depth and the stern at approximately 240-feet of depth. Netting and rigging obscured part of the view on the port side, but operators of the ROV were able to see that no major fractures appeared anywhere on the hull and the fuel tanks remain intact.

The boat had about 2,500 gallons of diesel out of a 4,000-gallon capacity, the crew estimated. Another100 gallons or so of hydraulic fluid and lubricant oil were on board.

Sheening from periodic venting of diesel from the fuel tanks has been minimal, the Coast Guard has reported. The first week 4,300-feet of absorbent boom was laid along Smallpox Bay, near Sunset Point, to the south end of Henry Island and both sides of White Point Peninsula to ensure environmentally sensitive areas are protected if fuel came ashore.

To ensure a safe work environment for divers, safety zones extending 1,000 yards around all responding dive boats established the first week remain in effect.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a Temporary Flight Restriction around the incident site. The public may not fly drones/UAS within this TFR zone, as they may distract crews during this complex operation and hamper recovery efforts, the Coast Guard reported.

The Coast Guard has stressed that a paramount goal of the Unified Command remains the protection of all marine mammals, including the Southern Resident Killer Whale population. A dedicated wildlife team conducted an area assessment both along the shoreline and in open water; no marine, terrestrial, or airborne wildlife appear to have been affected by the pollution incident.

The Unified Command, made up of the Coast Guard, the Washington State Department of Ecology, the San Juan Office of Emergency Management and the Swinomish Tribe, was formed the morning of Aug. 14.

Support agencies include NOAA, Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, Islands' Oil Spill Association, National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Coast Guard reports that the final disposition of the boat once recovered remains to be determined. The cause of the incident remains under investigation.

"Swinomish will not be providing any comments on the vessel sinking," Amy Trainer, the Tribe's environmental policy director wrote in an email Aug. 29.