Pacific Daily News

According to a report from Pacific Daily News, Coast Guard Pacific Strike Team members assisted with salvage operations for the sunken dry dock, Big Blue, in Apra Harbor by helping with a fuel transfer Jan. 6. Rough seas and high surfs caused the dry dock to take on too much water in its tanks, according to Pacific Daily News reports. Approximately 13,000 gallons of diesel oil and 2,000 gallons of waste oil will be transferred from the dry dock. (Source: Pacific Daily News)

The barge that ran aground in Hagåtña Bay was removed and steps are now being taken to repair damage. The Coast Guard said the barge was removed at 6:15 p.m. yesterday, safely and with minimal damage to the reef. According to Department of Agriculture fisheries biologist Brent Tibbatts, both the reef and the barge will be assessed and then repairs will be looked at. Two tugboats were used to pull the barge from the reef during the high tide yesterday evening.The barge was then assessed by the U.S. Coast Guard for seaworthiness and moved into Apra Harbor, where Tibbatts said it will most likely undergo repairs.The cause of the grounding is still being investigated by the Coast Guard…

Divers from Mobile Underwater Diving Salvage Unit (MUDSU) 1 based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, will soon descend into a Pacific lagoon to stop a recent oil leak and assess the material condition of a World War II Navy oil tanker that sank in 1944. USS Mississinewa (AO 59), a 553-foot auxiliary oiler, was commissioned May 18, 1944, and supported the ships of the 3rd Fleet in the Central and South Pacific. The huge lagoon at Ulithi Atoll was an anchorage for hundreds of Pacific Fleet ships and major staging area for campaigns at Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Mississinewa was anchored in Ulithi's lagoon when it was struck by a Japanese-manned suicide torpedo, or "kaiten," on the morning of Nov. 20, 1944. The ship burst into flames and sank, killing 63 American Sailors.