A whale watching boat ran aground Wednesday morning with 113 customers aboard, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Nobody was injured and the vessel made it back to port safely.
The St. Maria, an Allen Marine vessel, was watching marine mammals when it ran aground on a rock at Eagle Reef, north of Juneau in Favorite Channel, a body of water on the mainland Lincoln Island at about the latitude of the Shrine of St. Thérèse. The USCG received the report at about 10 a.m. Wednesday, USCG spokesperson Nicholas Capuzzi said.
“At some point they found themselves aground on the rock. Specifically what led up to that is under investigation by Marine Casualty Investigators,” Capuzzi said.
The vessel sustained a crack in the hull and began taking on water. The Coast Guard sent a 45-foot response boat from Auke Bay to monitor the scene as crew pumped water from the hull using on board pumps.
The St. Maria’s crew patched the crack and transferred passengers to another Allen Marine vessel. The passengers were taken back to Auke Bay. A rising tide refloated the St. Maria, which was safely navigated back to the Allen Marine dock, Capuzzi said. The vessel was aground for about an hour.
Investigators will look into the St. Maria’s activities, the weather in the area and any mechanical issues on board to determine if there was any negligence by the captain or crew, Capuzzi said.
The Empire reached out to Allen Marine for comment, but Allen Marine managers were not immediately available to comment.
• Contact reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 and kgullufsen@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @KevinGullufsen.
The Allen Marine whale watching boat St. Maria was grounded on a rock Wednesday morning and received help from another Allen Marine boat and the U.S. Coast Guard. (Photo courtesy USCG Station Juneau)
