Fishing Vessel Submerged at Pier

NEW YORK - The Coast Guard is overseeing the salvage of a 70-foot fishing vessel that sank at the pier in Oceanside, N.Y., at around 8 a.m. today.

Coast Guard Station Jones Beach received the initial call that the Miss Edith, a clamming dredge owned by Bayhead Inc., Manahawkin, N.J., was submerged in roughly 20-feet of water and leaked 100-gallons of diesel fuel in the Hog Island Channel.  The owner reported he had deployed a boom around the vessel to stop the leakage.

Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound quickly dispatched pollution investigators to the site.  The New York Department of Environmental Conservation and the Oceanside Bay Constable are also on scene.

The owner of the Miss Edith hired the Miller Environmental Group, a commercial salvage and environmental response company, to clean up any pollution from the vessel.

“Miller Environmental Group will be offloading the remaining fuel in the vessel before it is removed from the water,” said Chief Warrant Officer Rodger Guest, a command duty officer at Sector Long Island Sound.  “Workers are making their way down the shore to clean a reported one mile sheen in the area.”

The crew of the vessel attempted to plug any leakage by diving down to the vessel earlier today, certified divers are en route to plug any remaining leakage from the vessel.

Once the estimated 2,000 gallons on board the vessel are offloaded, a contracting company will be hired to remove the 70-foot boat from the channel.

This incident is under investigation.