Tribute to those lost on Arctic Rose to precede study of wreck

Tribute to those lost on Arctic Rose to precede study of wreck

Wednesday, July 18, 2001

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ABOARD THE OCEAN EXPLORER -- Approaching the scene of the nation's worst commercial fishing disaster in 50 years, three Coast Guard investigators plan to each drop a wreath into the Bering Sea where 15 fishermen perished when the Arctic Rose sank April 2.

The ceremony likely will take place today after the wreck of the Seattle-based vessel is located with sonar but before the descent of a robot camera, said Capt. Ronald Morris of the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation.

The investigators left Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands Sunday night on a chartered commercial fishing vessel and headed north into the Bering Sea. They expected to arrive at the Arctic Rose's approximate resting place late last night. It is 200 miles northwest of St. Paul Island.

"This is going to help us tremendously," Morris said. He said he was amazed to be at sea only days after a board hearing concluded in Anchorage, Alaska. "It floors me this is coming together the way it is."

The Coast Guard approved spending $200,000 for the search. The 155-foot Ocean Explorer was already rigged for underwater surveys because it had just finished a 30-day research project on the effects of trawling on the Bering Sea floor.

The same sonar crew remains on board, saving time and money, said Morris, who extended the vessel's $6,300 daily contract with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration that included everything but fuel.

The Ocean Explorer, a pollock and cod trawler owned by Trident Seafoods, is carrying 19 people, including three members of the investigative board, to the scene of the worst disaster involving a U.S. fishing vessel since the Goodrun sank off the coast of New England in 1951. That disaster also killed 15 fishermen.

"We're doing a very good thing here," said Steve Toomey as he tested the unmanned submarine Sunday night in Unalaska, lowering it into Dutch Harbor and activating the propellers and video camera spotlight.

The 92-foot Arctic Rose should be easily located on a featureless plain 450 feet deep, said sonar technician Richard Dentzman of Charleston, S.C.

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