As reported by the Washington Department of Ecology news, Global Diving & Salvage said May 23 that it has been hired by the Washington State Department of Ecology to raise and remove a 128-foot fish boat that burned and sank in Penn Cove, Wash.
Ecology maintains a standing salvage contract with Global Diving and Salvage Inc., as part of the department’s spill response mission. The company will conduct the salvage operation for Ecology.
The vessel rests on state-owned aquatic lands managed by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Plans for the salvage operation are still being developed, with no date set for raising the vessel.
Ecology and DNR seek a prompt and safe removal of the wreck because it likely contains an unknown amount of oil and hazardous materials that could be released into the water as the steel structure rusts over time.
Meanwhile, environmental response crews hired by Ecology continue to tend and monitor oil-spill containment boom placed around the site of the wreck. The crews are removing small amounts of oil — that periodically float up from the wreck into the boomed area — with oil-spill cleanup materials.
Divers and other responders hired by the U.S. Coast Guard removed or recovered at least 3,600 gallons of diesel fuel from the wreck in the first five days after the sinking. The 128-foot vessel rests on its left side in about 60 feet of water.
