Coast Guard wraps up 2021 task force initiative in Arctic, Western Alaska. Twenty tweny-one was a busy year for the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Task Force (MSTF). MSTF visited 95 remote communities, completed 128 fuel storage facility inspections, 470 commercial fishing vessel exams, five gold dredge exams, and monitored six fuel-to-shore transfers. While in those communities MSTF assessed the impact of climate change and pollution. The teams also inspected fuel storage units, commercial fishing vessels and gold dredges, and monitored oversea fuel-to-shore transfers. The biggest challenge that the teams in Western Alaska and the Arctic witnessed weren’t a result of a lack of preparedness, rather climate change and pollution. "I had a very special opportunity to be part of an MSTF team that deployed to the island community of Little Diomede in October,” said Capt. Leanne Lusk, commander Sector Anchorage. “Little Diomede is the closest location in the U.S. to Russia. The island has 98 residents, half of whom are children. We learned that they only receive one fuel delivery each year. We were there to inspect their fuel tanks to ensure they could survive the coming winter without a fuel or heating oil spill and to talk about pollution response efforts in the Bering Strait should a spill ever occur. The residents we met described this increasingly-transited region as their ‘grocery store’ and explained the tragic impacts a major pollution incident would have on their village and their people.” See video here. Read more.
Coast Guard takes delivery of sixth Bahrain-based Fast Response Cutter (FRC). Bollinger Shipyards delivered the final Fast Response Cutter - the Coast Guard Cutter Clarence Sutphin - to the Coast Guard Jan. 6. Cutter Clarence Sutphin is the sixth and final FRC to be home-ported in Manama, Bahrain, which will replace the aging 110-foot Island Class Patrol Boats, that Bollinger Shipyards built 30 years ago. It will support the Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA), the U.S. Coast Guard’s largest overseas presence outside the United States. Cutter Clarence Sutphin is part of the Sentinel-class of Fast Response Cutters built by Bollinger in its Louisiana shipyard. The ship is set to be commissioned in April. Read more.
Coast Guard rescues two from disabled craft off Maui, Hawaii. A helicopter rescue crew from Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point and members from the Maui County Fire Department rescued two people aboard a disabled watercraft located more than two miles off Peahi, Jan. 6.Coast Guard Sector Honolulu watchstanders received reports about the watercraft at around 11 p.m., Jan. 5. The two people aboard the vessel sent a distress text message to their friend, who in turn informed the Coast Guard. The stranded mariners stated that their watercraft was experiencing engine issues and that they needed assistance. Both mariners were in good condition. Read more.