Station Marblehead News

CLEVELAND — The U.S. Coast Guard and local agencies rescued 46 ice fishermen from an ice floe that broke free near Catawaba Island, Saturday.An additional estimated 100 people were able to self-rescue themselves from the ice floe either by swimming or walking on ice-bridges that were still connected to the floe initially.At 8:13 a.m., Coast Guard Station Marblehead received notification from an Ohio Department of Natural Resources representative that there were approximately 100 people stranded on an ice floe and that there were an additional 30 to 40 people in the water.

The U.S. Coast Guard medically evacuated a man off of a dredging barge in Lake Erie near Sandusky, Ohio, Wednesday evening. At approximately 5:45 p.m., a good Samaritan called Coast Guard Station Marblehead, Ohio, to report two men on a dredging barge who needed help due to injuries. The barge was 50 yards off shore in water too shallow for a Coast Guard response boat to get to come alongside, so a rescue team traveled to the location by truck. The rescue team launched from the shore in a skiff ice inflatable boat…

Lightering operations has begunn for the  tanker barge Argo sunken in Lake Erie as Unified Command responders took advantage of a favorable weather window, the U.S. Coast Guard reported. The first of Argo’s eight tanks are being tapped and offloaded. The product will be pumped into a specialized container on a work barge where it will be run through a series of carbon filters to separate and remove the flammable vapors from the product. The contents will again be sampled to gain a better understanding of the contents of Argo’s hold.

Salvage operations for the sunken tanker barge Argo in Lake Erie continue as the Unified Command proceeds with plans for product recovery. Crews will start prepping the first tank this week for “hot tapping” operations. Actual lightering operations will not occur until later in the week at the earliest, as the response operators are still waiting for the proper tank to offload the material into and weather continues to impede operations. The results from the sample from this first tank, sampled on November 9, were found to be primarily Benzene, with some Toluene, Xylene and trace elements of petroleum. Because these materials are not typically shipped on the Great Lakes, the proper equipment to remove it is not available in this region.

Crews continue to respond to and investigate a reported discharge of an unknown substance from the site of a sunken barge near Kelleys Island Shoal in Lake Erie Thursday. The unified command, consisting of the U.S. Coast Guard and the Ohio EPA, continues to take all necessary actions to ensure the safety of the public and the environment. During dive operations Wednesday, a pinhole-sized leak was detected in one of the cargo tanks and was successfully secured by the dive team. As a precautionary measure, on-scene responders were taken to a local hospital for medical evaluation and have since been released. Surface operations were suspended to ensure safety of all responders and will resume when site safety coordinators determine it is safe for responders to return.

Crews continue to investigate a reported discharge of an unknown substance from the site of a sunken barge near Kelley's Island Shoal in Lake Erie, Monday. The Unified Command, consisting of the U.S. Coast Guard and the Ohio EPA, is continuing to take all necessary actions to ensure the safety of the public and the environment, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a press release. At 9:30 a.m., members of the Coast Guard Atlantic Strike Team and a crew from Coast Guard Station Marblehead…

The Coast Guard is responding to a report of a discharge of an unknown substance from the site of a sunken barge near Kelley's Island Shoal in Lake Erie, Sunday. Due to the report, the Coast Guard has established a safety zone 3 nautical miles east of Kelley's Island Shoal extending 1,000 feet around position 41-38'21"N, 082-29'35"W. Friday evening crews at Marine Safety Unit Toledo, Ohio, received a report from the Cleveland Underwater Explorers, of a leak of an unknown substance emanating from the barge and an odor of solvent, but they did not observe the leak underwater. CLUE divers were investigating the wreck to determine if it was the barge Argo which sank during a storm in 1937.

The Coast Guard rescued a fisherman from western Lake Erie after he launched an emergency distress flare Wednesday afternoon, near South Bass Island, Ohio. The Coast Guard is not releasing the name of the man rescued, and there is no Coast Guard imagery for this case. At about 4:20 p.m., a watchstander at Coast Guard Station Marblehead, Ohio, responded to a flare sighting report from a good Samaritan. The watchstander directed the launch of a boat crew aboard a 25-foot response boat. The good Samaritan stayed on scene and vectored the boat crew to where the flare was seen. Once on scene, the boat crew located the man in the water near his sunken 16-foot bass boat. The boat crew pulled the uninjured man aboard the response boat and took him to shore.

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) rescued six people from the Portage River near Port Clinton, Ohio, Thursday, after the vessel they were aboard began taking on water. Shortly before 1:30 p.m., a member of Rescue Marine Salvage Company notified the watch stander at Coast Guard Station Marblehead, Ohio that a 28-foot charter vessel with six people aboard was taking on water. A Station Marblehead boat crew responded aboard a 45-foot response boat. They arrived on scene and found the vessel listing to the port side with its engine compartment flooded. The crew removed five of the passengers from vessel for safety. The owner stayed aboard while commercial salvage dewatered the vessel.

The crew of U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Station Marblehead, Ohio, officially accepted delivery Thursday of the station’s second 45-foot response boat, doubling the rescue capability of Ohio-based Coast Guard station, the USCG said. The response boat, uilt by Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wis., will increase the ability of Station Marblehead’s crew to respond to search-and-rescue cases by augmenting its current complement of one 45-foot response boat, two 25-foot response boats, one 20-foot airboat and one inflatable rescue craft.

The U.S. Coast Guard and representatives from local emergency response agencies responded to the scene of a truck that fell through the ice, Friday morning, near Catawba Island in western Lake Erie. Two people were in the truck when it broke through the ice, but they were able to escape and get to shore before the truck completely fell through the ice. At about 10 a.m., a watchstander at Coast Guard Station Marblehead, Ohio, received a call from a dispatcher at the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office, who was relaying a report originally received by the Catawba Island Township Police Department that a truck was falling through the ice. The vehicle reportedly fell through the ice about a quarter mile north of Catawba Island near the Miller Ferry Boat Lines.

Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Toledo, Station Marblehead, Ohio, along with the crew of the CSL Niagara and Lloyds Register, safely refloated a grounded vessel near Sandusky, Ohio, Monday night. The Canadian flagged, self-discharging, bulk cargo vessel CSL Niagara, operated by V-Ships, loaded with approximately 30,000 Metric Tons of Coal, grounded in the Moseley Channel, Sunday morning. Increased water levels and favorable wind conditions allowed the vessel to be freed with the assistance of three tugs contracted by V-Ships Canada.

The crew of Coast Guard Station Marblehead, Ohio, officially accepted delivery Friday of the station’s new 45-foot Response Boat-Medium. The RB-M can respond faster than previous boats of similar size with a top speed in excess of 40 knots and has advanced search capability with an installed forward-looking infrared search technology. Additionally, with twin jet propulsion, the vessel is able to respond in shallower water. The boat has a deep-V, double-chine hull, which provides a balance of performance and stability. The vessel is also self-righting.

U.S. Coast Guard personnel, working with members of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, interdicted a Canadian commercial fishing vessel allegedly fishing illegally on Lake Erie in waters subject to U.S. and Ohio jurisdiction. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources personnel contacted Coast Guard Sector Detroit, alerting watchstanders in Sector Detroit’s Command Center of a commercial vessel potentially fishing in U.S./Ohio waters near North Bass Island. A law enforcement team from Coast Guard Station Marblehead, Ohio, launched aboard a 33-foot Special Purpose Craft-Law Enforcement and determined that the ADCO II was actively engaged in fishing about 160 yards inside U.S. waters. Aircrews from Coast Guard Air Station Detroit and U.S.