Author Topic: Boat capsized in tow of CCGS Sir William Alexander  (Read 9981 times)

Offline Kier Shackleton Gigeroff

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Boat capsized in tow of CCGS Sir William Alexander
« on: March 30, 2008, 03:37:03 PM »
Here's the CBC article

Pretty bad; nobody was on watch when the sealer capsized.

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"Divers recovered the bodies of three seal hunters Saturday from a disabled fishing vessel that capsized about 70 kilometres north of Cape Breton while being towed by a coast guard icebreaker.

Lt. Lora Collier of the Canadian navy said only two members of the crew of the Acadien II survived. Divers were still searching for a fourth missing sealer who was aboard the overturned fishing boat.

The 12-metre vessel, with a crew of six from the

Offline Mike

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Re: Boat capsized in tow of CCGS Sir William Alexander
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2008, 06:59:33 PM »
Hello Kier
A realy sad and shocking piece of reporting, almost unbelievable that on a coast guard ship of all things no one was observing the towed vessel. and there can no acceptable excuse
I have to say this would never happen if an RNLI boat was towing a boat.
I would have thought the Captain of this coast guard vessel has a lot of explaining to do.

Mike
Mike

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Offline Bill

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Re: Boat capsized in tow of CCGS Sir William Alexander
« Reply #2 on: March 31, 2008, 06:09:36 AM »
Very sad.I imagine there will be an inquiry.

Offline Timsen

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Re: Boat capsized in tow of CCGS Sir William Alexander
« Reply #3 on: March 31, 2008, 07:48:14 AM »
Well, whiy do the sealers their murder-job? Sometimes nature strikes back..The hunt has been stopped after the mishap. That's really good news.

Offline K. Watson

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Re: Boat capsized in tow of CCGS Sir William Alexander
« Reply #4 on: March 31, 2008, 11:22:34 AM »
Thats a pretty uninformed remark,typical of the Bridgit Bardot set!

Offline Dean Porter

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Re: Boat capsized in tow of CCGS Sir William Alexander
« Reply #5 on: March 31, 2008, 11:49:55 AM »
I agree with you Ken.

Offline Daniel B

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Re: Boat capsized in tow of CCGS Sir William Alexander
« Reply #6 on: March 31, 2008, 01:25:32 PM »
To Timsen:
When you eat beef or chicken, do you call the butcher a murderer? And what about the fisherman who feed you up with lobster or salmon?  Daniel.

Offline Bill

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Re: Boat capsized in tow of CCGS Sir William Alexander
« Reply #7 on: March 31, 2008, 02:16:09 PM »
Well said Shelty.I don't think Timsen understands that it has nothing to do with the seal hunt.This may of happened to any vessel.

Offline Kier Shackleton Gigeroff

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Re: Boat capsized in tow of CCGS Sir William Alexander
« Reply #8 on: March 31, 2008, 07:18:20 PM »
Also the seal population is in no danger. In fact it's very high.
But still, it's pretty bad that nobody was on watch, and someone is probably responsible.
This kind of thing happens though, and the Coast Guard tries to do its best to stop it, unfortunately in this case I guess they weren't doing their best. They did get the two men on deck off right away, but the others were below and not much could have been done.

Tynesider: I do respect what you said but to be fair the RNLI would never have to deal with huge chinks of thick ice, which is a very challenging aspect of the Canadian waters and even Icebreakers find themselves stuck and occasionally are sunk (CGS Lady Grey, 1955 while assisting the Quebec-Levis ferry).

Kier

Offline Timsen

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Re: Boat capsized in tow of CCGS Sir William Alexander
« Reply #9 on: April 01, 2008, 07:48:28 AM »
Of course it's sad if sailors die. But why do these guys enter these icy waters while it is prohibited for the "Farley Mowat", of the U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to the same time? This contradicts good seamanship. By the way, the seals are not killed to get meat but to get furs, that's quite a difference. And meanwhile it has been once again proved that the sealers do not kill the babys according to the rules but the brutal way they always did. Though it has been tried to get media out, there exists video footage on this.

Offline Kier Shackleton Gigeroff

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Re: Boat capsized in tow of CCGS Sir William Alexander
« Reply #10 on: April 01, 2008, 02:08:21 PM »
Quote

Timsen wrote:
Of course it's sad if sailors die. But why do these guys enter these icy waters while it is prohibited for the "Farley Mowat", of the U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to the same time? This contradicts good seamanship. By the way, the seals are not killed to get meat but to get furs, that's quite a difference. And meanwhile it has been once again proved that the sealers do not kill the babys according to the rules but the brutal way they always did. Though it has been tried to get media out, there exists video footage on this.


For the record, Sea Shepherd is a terrorist organization that sinks vessels suspected of illegal hunting (they claimed 10). I agree with worldwide conservation but this case has to be re-thought. Up there in Newfoundland a lot of people make a living on the seal hunt, and selling the furs is how they survive. Would you see it as brutal for the Inuit in the far north to kill seals for their fur coats which they need to survive? I agree, there may be a few cases where the seals are killed in a non-humane way, but also there are PLENTY of videos of people brutally killing cows, pigs and chickens. So again I guess that means that people who eat meat are murderers...? Hmmmm...
See what happens if you come over here and start calling us murderers. I don't think you'll get a good response.

By the way, I apologize for ranting on about this when it has little, if anything, to do with ships.

Offline Daniel B

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Re: Boat capsized in tow of CCGS Sir William Alexander
« Reply #11 on: April 01, 2008, 02:57:11 PM »
Hello Timsen
Every day, dozen of children and women are killed in Iraq because of the occupation by the US military.  Being an US organisation, the Sea Sepherds Society should mind her own business and try to protect the innocent peoples of the Middle-East instead of the seals. Daniel.

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Re: Boat capsized in tow of CCGS Sir William Alexander
« Reply #12 on: April 01, 2008, 03:07:54 PM »
Hi All

In an attempt t drag this thread screaming and kicking back to the topic of SHIPPING - here is a piece from CNN International ~~@ http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/03/31/canada.hunt.ap/

"Canadian vessel, conservation group ship collide

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (AP) -- A coast guard icebreaker and a ship owned by an activist conservation group collided off Canada's east coast as tensions mounted over the country's annual seal hunt.

A spokesman for Canada's federal fisheries department said Monday that the icebreaker was "grazed" twice Sunday by the Farley Mowat, a 177-foot vessel owned by the U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

But the conservation group countered that its ship was rammed twice by the 321-foot icebreaker Des Groseilliers about 40 miles north of Cape Breton.

"It rammed the stern end of the Farley Mowat and when the Farley Mowat was stopped, it came back and hit them again," Paul Watson, head of the society, said from Los Angeles, California. "It was twice so it was intentional."

Department spokesman Phil Jenkins denounced the allegations, calling them "absolutely false" and part of a strategy to discredit the coast guard.

"The allegations that the Des Groseilliers rammed the Farley Mowat are complete nonsense. That's a piece of fiction," Jenkins said.

There was no damage done and no injuries were reported, he said.

The crew members aboard the Farley Mowat said they were told by the coast guard not to approach an ice-covered area where seals were being slaughtered on the third day of the hunt

Watson's group, which is monitoring and videotaping the hunt, said the coast guard ship rammed its vessel twice when the Farley Mowat did not comply.

Loyola Hearn, minister of Canada's Fisheries and Oceans, said the Farley Mowat maneuvered itself in front of the coast guard vessel to cause a collision between the two vessels.

"This organization is known to use this tactic to generate photo opportunities, which generate publicity and bolster their fundraising efforts -- an action I find despicable," Hearn said in a statement.

The collision came days after four seal hunters were killed when their small boat capsized as they were being towed by the coast guard icebreaker Sir William Alexander.

Witnesses have said the crew aboard the Alexander were not monitoring the tow as they plowed through thick ice floes north of Cape Breton.

Several agencies have said they will investigate the accident that killed the four sealers.

The seal hunting industry finds itself under pressure from animals rights activists who believe the hunt is cruel and badly monitored. Sealers and the fisheries department defend it as sustainable, humane and well-managed. They have said it provides supplemental income for isolated fishing communities that have been hurt by the decline in cod stocks."

Regards

Offline Kier Shackleton Gigeroff

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Re: Boat capsized in tow of CCGS Sir William Alexander
« Reply #13 on: April 01, 2008, 04:15:13 PM »
Thanks for this report, Steve. Sounds like Sea Shepherd is up to its old games again.

Kier

Offline mooringman

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Re: Boat capsized in tow of CCGS Sir William Alexander
« Reply #14 on: April 03, 2008, 12:22:53 AM »
i'm just wondering,why the canadians,especially the newfies are reacting so aggressiv to the european blame of the seal hunt.i'm married to a good hearted newfie woman and each year i have a bad discussion with her too.there is no need to hunt seals.one argument is very often,there are to many seals.might be,but  there is not enough fish,because the whole world catched the fish in these waters with giant trawlers.they made a lot of money there,now the don't have enough fish ,especially cod.the people don't want to carry sealskin,only some crazy idiots.in the year 2008 it is not necessery to remember on mrs.bardot,she was just one of many people..by the way,the sealers will go in the ice,because they can kill the seals easy on top of the ice.and for sure the coast guard vessel made a big mistake.....

 

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