Coast Guard Marine Safety Office San Francisco Bay News

The U.S. Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Office San Francisco Bay, the California Department of Fish and Game Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) and Titan Maritime, Inc. continue their steady progress on the assessment and oil removal operations from the sunken 468 ft. cargo ship S.S. Jacob Luckenbach , which sank 50 years ago, 17 miles West of San Francisco. Despite the challenges and risks involved with the operation, the responders have identified 26 tanks and spaces on the wreck containing about 132,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil. To date, about 12,000 gallons of oil have been recovered. During the assessment, many fuel tanks were found to have badly corroded vent pipes which allowed oil to slowly leak into the cargo holds.

The U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Office San Francisco Bay is investigating the near collision between a container ship Santa Monica and the fishing vessel Cheryl-C near the Golden Gate Bridge. At approximately 7:50 a.m. on August 16, 2005, the container ship Santa Monica was traveling outbound past the Golden Gate Bridge and had to make a drastic course change to avoid a collision with the fishing vessel Cheryl-C. The Cheryl-C was obstructing the path of the Santa Monica in the shipping lane and did not heed danger signals sounded by the 831-foot container ship. The Coast Guard is pursuing civil penalty action against the Cheryl-C…