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R/R Cougar Ace; North Pacific Ocean, AK

North Pacific Ocean, AK | 2006-Jul-24

Initial Notification: The "Cougar Ace", a 654-foot container ship transporting over 4,800 automobiles from Japan to Vancouver British Columbia Canada, began to take on water for an unknown reason late Sunday about 245 nautical miles southwest of Atka Alaska and started to list to its port side. The ship was initially reported listing at about 80 degrees from vertical. The ship has approximately 142,180 gallons of IFO-380 and 34,180 gallons of marine diesel fuel on board, in addition to the oil and gasoline in the autos. On Monday a sheen was reported about two miles in length emanating from the vessel. The crew of 23 was rescued Monday by U.S. Coast Guard and National Guard helicopters. One crew member suffered a broken leg before being rescued. After floating around in the N. Pacific Ocean for over a week, a tug from Seattle finally arrived and took the vessel under tow. The tug was able to successfully tow the vessel to Unalaska Harbor, adjacent to Dutch Harbor, where the vessel was re-ballasted to a normal upright position. No additional pollution occurred, and the Cougar Ace was towed to Vancouver where the automobiles were all sent to the junk yard.

Incident Details
Primary threat:Oil
Products of concern:Fuel oil, gasoline
Total amount at risk of spill: 1,380,000 gallons
Latitude (approximate): 48° 7.80′ North
Longitude (approximate): 174° 16.20′ West