Fishermen rescued after likely cargo ship collision
by Garth Meyer
In thick fog Saturday night, Oct. 7, a 911 call came in for a vessel in distress off of Point Vicente. The non-English speaking voice conveyed that two boats collided.
A Redondo Beach Fire Department Harbor Patrol unit responded, along with Lifeguard Baywatch Redondo, Baywatch Cabrillo, and a 45-foot Coast Guard cutter from Terminal Island.
“Visibility was very, very poor that night,” said Jason May, Redondo Beach Fire Department Division Chief, Operations. “Less than a hundred feet in spots.”
The RBFD and Baywatch boats used radar to search, looking for the origin of the call in a populated channel, a week into lobster season.
A modified Blackhawk Coast Guard helicopter then took off from Forward Operating Base Point Mugu (Ventura), flying in a clear night above the fog bank.
On the water, off of Palos Verdes near Terranea Resort, RBFD Harbor Patrol Captain Chad Smith and crewmember Grant Currie approached more than one vessel – which turned out not to be the one which called in the emergency.
Coordinates for the call registered at 2.9 miles from shore, near a shipping lane, through which massive freighters go to and from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Above the channel, as the Coast Guard black hawk flew in a grid, according to one report, its crew saw a flare come up through the fog.
Soon the fishing boat was located, a 25-foot Parker recreational craft, its front-end smashed and torn, with two men on deck seriously injured and three more onboard. The boat was taking on water, but not sinking.
All five men were lifted onto Smith and Currie’s Harbor Patrol boat and taken to King Harbor, the rescue crews back at the docks at 9:50 p.m. to meet ambulances. The two seriously-injured men were taken to Harbor UCLA Medical Center and the other three to Little Company of Mary.
Redondo Beach Fire Department personnel prepare to move injured men to ambulances Oct. 7 at the Station Three docks. Photo courtesy RBFD
Based on communication between rescue personnel and the L.A. harbor-based fishermen, it was surmised that the boat hit a container ship.
The men were hoopnet fishing for lobster. All five were non-English speaking. Lobster fishing is often done at night when the animals are more active.
The cargo vessel could have been from across the world, May said, and its crew may not have known they hit the fishing boat.
“It takes (container ships) several miles to stop and a mile to turn.”
Another factor in the incident, May suggested, is that in heavy fog, boats sometimes go without running lights as the glare can make it harder to see than otherwise.
“In this region, the fog can migrate and move,” May said. “It can be foggy on one side of Point Vicente and clear on the other.”
Did the fishermen know they were in or near a shipping lane?
“Any sort of chart has it clearly marked (in gray) as a shipping lane,” said May.
He estimates that on a given night, three-to-five cargo ships, as long as a thousand feet, pass through the channel between the mainland and Catalina Island.
Container ship traffic picks up this time of year before the Christmas shopping season.
“It was a very challenging rescue for all of the agencies involved,” May said. ER