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Some risks of collision
USCG is worried about Valdez near misses between tankers and fishing vessels
Alan Bailey Petroleum News
The U.S. Coast Guard is very concerned about reports of several near misses between oil tankers departing the Valdez Marine Terminal and fishing vessels operating in the Valdez Narrows, the sea inlet that connects the Port of Valdez with Prince William Sound. Lt. Cmdr. Aaron Riutta from the Coast Guard told the board of the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council on Jan. 24 that there had been four near miss incidents reported in 2017 and three incidents reported in 2018.
“We’ve noticed in recent years that there’s been an occurrence of what we call near misses between tanker vessels and fishing vessels, particularly focused in the Valdez Narrows,” Riutta told the board.
A collision between a tanker and a fishing vessel could be catastrophic, posing danger to vessel crew members as well as a significant environmental risk - a single tanker can carry something in the order of 91 million gallons of crude oil, Riutta said.
Safety rules Under federal regulations there is a security zone imposed on either side of the vessel route through the Narrows, when a tanker is in transit. There is also a security zone around a moving tanker. Safety rules apply to any vessel operating in the Narrows, including a need to monitor the radio frequency used to transmit information about tanker movements.
Riutta said that the Coast Guard defines a near miss as any incident in which a tanker sees fit to call, reporting a vessel movement that creates the potential for a collision. Any encroachment of the security zones by a vessel in the Narrows is also considered to be a near miss.
The Coast Guard’s current concern was particularly triggered in 2017, when an outbound tanker had to change course and adjust its speed to avoid a collision with a fishing vessel. Amanda Bauer, president of PWSRCAC, said that she had actually observed the incident. Apparently a seiner was traveling on a course cutting across the tanker’s bow.
Coast Guard action Having subsequently determined that there had been four incidents in 2017, the Coast Guard set about gathering appropriate data and preparing a plan for dealing with the situation.
“We really wanted to do a lot of outreach,” Riutta said. “We wanted to do what we could, when we could, to address this issue by basically opening people’s minds and providing them with as much information as we could.”
The Coast Guard issued a navigation advisory and talked to various stakeholders in the situation, seeking different ways of communicating with what is a diverse fishing fleet from a variety of ports.
The agency also evaluated the situation from a law enforcement perspective, to determine if there is a better way to enforce the security zones in the Narrows. A request for law enforcement assets and crew was, however, turned down. And there proved to be no other way of dedicating a law enforcement asset to the situation. However, the Coast Guard did cite one vessel in 2018 for not monitoring the tanker operations radio frequency.
Incidents continue Despite the considerable effort put into increasing people’s awareness of the tanker collision risk, there were three near miss incidents in 2018. Riutta said that, based on a comparison of fishing and tanker activity between 2017 and 2018, the drop from four to three incidents did not appear to represent a safety improvement. And the Coast Guard continues to seek ways of improving both awareness and regulatory enforcement.
Riutta said that an additional worry for 2019 are plans for 13 cruise ships to visit Valdez - the Coast Guard is talking to the cruise ship companies, to heighten their awareness of the tanker safety issues.
And steps that the Coast Guard is now taking include continuing its stakeholder outreach, clarifying the legal rules for engaging with potential regulatory offenders in the Narrows, and upgrading Coast Guard checklists, to accommodate actions to take in response to a near miss incident. Efforts continue to ramp up law enforcement surveillance.
“We’re still looking at continuing to request the dedicated law enforcement assets,” Riutta said. “We do feel that is a pretty effective way to enforce this issue.”
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