This story was last updated at 10:09 p.m. Tuesday and will stand for the night.
Forty-six crewmen from the Seattle-based fishing vessel Alaska Juris have been rescued from lifeboats near the Aleutians, but the fate of their 238-foot trawler is unclear.
Shortly after 9 p.m. Juneau time, the U.S. Coast Guard reported that the cargo ships Spar Canis and Vienna Express had successfully plucked the trawler’s crew from the ocean with the assistance of aircraft from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Lauren Steenson, a spokeswoman for the Coast Guard in Kodiak, said by email that the Coast Guard received a call for help from the Alaska Juris about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. The Coast Guard spread word among mariners that the Alaska Juris was taking on water, and four cargo ships adjusted course to help.
The news reached the general public late Tuesday afternoon when Coast Guard District 17 staff shared an account of the rescue on Twitter. The account declaring the incident distributes news from the Alaska district’s public affairs staff.
Chief Petty Officer John Masson, a spokesman for the Coast Guard in Juneau, confirmed that a rescue was in progress and that the Coast Guard was en route to the Alaska Juris.
The weather, according to measurements taken by the Alaska Ocean Observing System, was good for the Aleutians, with seas running three to four feet with mild winds.
Vessel tracking services provided by the Juneau-based Marine Exchange of Alaska revealed the Alaska Juris dead in the water 174 miles west-northwest of Adak about 4:30 p.m. The Automatic Identification System operated by the Marine Exchange confirmed that the Spar Canis and Vienna Express were en route at that time.
According to the database operated by the Alaska Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission, the Alaska Juris is a 611-ton steel-hulled trawler homeported in Seattle. The vessel’s registered owner is Alaska Juris Inc., a company controlled by Fishing Company of Alaska, an organization with a checkered safety and enforcement record.
In 2008, the 184-foot processing vessel Alaska Ranger — part of the Fishing Company of Alaska fleet — sank 138 miles west of Dutch Harbor. Five of the 47 people aboard the Alaska Ranger died.
Later that the same year, the federal government announced that the Fishing Company of Alaska and the captains and owner of the Alaska Juris had agreed to pay $449,700 in fines to settle fisheries violations committed between 2002 and 2004.
The 46 crew rescued from the Alaska Juris on Tuesday were en route to Adak late Tuesday. No word on their health was immediately available. The Coast Guard supervised the rescue from a Kodiak-based HC-130 aircraft; an additional HC-130, helicopters and the Coast Guard Cutter Midgett were also en route to the location.
• Contact reporter James Brooks at 523-2258 or james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com.
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