Mona Island News

A containership rescued 11 migrants from a capsized boat approximately 20 nautical miles northwest of Mona Island, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Coast Guard said.The survivors are 10 adult men and a male minor, who were rescued by the 984-foot Panamanian flagged MSC Gisselle after their inflatable boat took on water and capsized in the Mona Passage between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.The box ship's crew informed watchstanders at U.S. Coast Guard Sector San Juan at 8:20 p.m. Saturday that the vessel was on scene near the capsized boat and people in the water.The Coast Guard diverted a San Juan-stationed 154-foot fast response cutter Donald Horsley and a HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft to the scene.

The U.S. Coast Guard medically evacuated the Captain of the 734-foot Singapore-flagged containership M/V Maersk Batam, approximately 100 nautical miles south of Puerto Rico, Monday night.The containership captain, a U.K. citizen, was experiencing life threatening symptoms of a possible stroke during the ship’s transit from St. Marta, Colombia to their next scheduled port call in Southhampton, England.Coast Guard Sector San Juan watchstanders received the medevac request at 9:55 a.m. Monday from the M/V Maersk Batam, as the ship was transiting 175 nautical miles southwest of Mona Island, Puerto Rico. Coast Guard watchstanders launched a Coast Guard MH-65D helicopter crew from Air Station Borinquen to conduct the medevac…

The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Napier (WPC-1115) repatriated 22 of 25 Dominican migrants to a Dominican Republic Navy vessel Monday, following the interdiction of a makeshift boat Saturday, approximately 20 nautical miles northwest of Mona Island, Puerto Rico.Three of the interdicted migrants are facing possible federal prosecution by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico for illegally attempting to reenter the United States.The Coast Guard, and federal and Commonwealth of Puerto Rico law enforcement partners have interdicted more than 400 migrants and stopped several narcotics smuggling attempts since October of 2018."The migrants were attempting to make the transit across an ocean passage in a vessel that was inherently unsafe due to overloading…

The Coast Guard interdicted 66 migrants in the last 72-hours in five separate events near Puerto Rico.The Coast Guard, and federal and Commonwealth of Puerto Rico law enforcement partners have interdicted more than 380 migrants and stopped several narcotics smuggling attempts since October of 2018.“These recent migrant and drug interdiction cases, though smaller than what we see at our land borders, are a reminder of the constant threat toward the American citizens of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands,” said Rear Adm. Peter Brown, Coast Guard 7th District commander.

The Coast Guard says it repatriated 19 Haitian migrants from an intediction in the Mona Passage, including a pair of migrants who had to be rescued after they were thrown into the sea by the people-smugglers. A group of 19 migrants was detected by a Coast Guard aircraft west of Mona Island, Puerto Rico. Coast Guard Sector San Juan diverted the Coast Guard Cutter Key Largo to interdict the migrant vessel and informed federal law enforcement partner agencies. Upon the cutter Key Largo’s arrival on scene, the smugglers, in an attempt to flee the area and avoid interdiction, allegedly threatened the migrants onboard and forced two Haitians, including a minor, overboard without life jackets. The crew of the Key Largo saved the two Haitians and continued to pursue the suspect vessel.

Resolve Salvage & Fire, the salvage, emergency response and wreck removal subsidiary of Resolve Marine Group, Inc., has completed the removal of the grounded 202-foot freighter Jireh from Mona Island. Mona Island lies 35 miles off the western coast of Puerto Rico and is a 22- square-mile ecological reserve managed and protected by Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DRNA). Resolve worked closely with the Unified Command -- comprising U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)…

Coast Guard, Unified Command response crews complete grounded freighter 'Jireh' removal from Mona Island, Puerto Rico. The Jireh ran aground on Mona Island June 21, 2012 with 84 passengers and crew. The final cut-off-sections of the Jireh’s hull were lifted and transported by barge to the Port of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, where all other sections of the freighter’s hull have been staged for further cutting and transfer to recycling companies. Marine salvage contractors from Resolve Marine Group safely removed approximately 600 tons of the freighter’s hull.

Salvage crews & coral ecologists return to Mona Island, Puerto Rico, to cut apart the grounded freighter M/V Jireh. The U.S. Coast Guard and the rest of the response crew have been working carefully to cut up portions of the ship, in order to lighten the vessel enough to refloat and remove it from the reef. Once disassembled, the removed portions of the ship are loaded onto a barge and taken to Puerto Rico for recycling. In previous ship salvage cases involving coral habitats…

Cutting  & removing sections of 202-ft freighter 'Jireh' continue in preparation for final removal of vessel from Mona Island, Puerto Rico. The Jireh ran aground on Mona Island June 21, 2012 with 84 passengers and crew. Investigators have not been able to find the owners of the Honduran-flagged Jireh or what caused the crew to run the vessel aground. Response crews working to patch and plug the grounded freighter found extensive damage to the ship’s cargo hold. The damage consists of multiple large cracks and holes in the Jireh’s hull.

Diesel fuel removal operations continue onboard the cargo freighter Jireh that grounded on the Southwest coast of Mona, Island in Puerto Rico, on June 21. During staging operations, response crews located the original builder’s plans, in German and dating back to 1963, with diagrams of the interior layout of the cargo ship to help identify the ship’s actual dimensions and additional fuel tanks that had previously been unaccounted for. It was also discovered that the length of the vessel, reportedly 185-feet in length, is in fact 202-feet in length.

On the morning of June 29, 2003, the general cargo vessel JAMBO grounded off the Summer Islands on the west coast of Scotland. The primary cause of the grounding and subsequent total loss of the ship was that the chief officer on watch fell asleep and missed his intended change of course. He was awakened by the grounding. The root cause of the casualty was extreme fatigue - the result of a long period of standing six-on, six-off watches combined with cargo loading/unloading duties when the ship was in port. Unfortunately, this type casualty is not rare. Marine casualties in U.S. a) Grounding of the passenger car-ferry A. b) Collision between the USS RICHARD L. e) Grounding of the passenger ship STAR PRINCESS on Poundstone Rock, Lynn Canal, Alaska on June 23, 1995.