Taki-Tooo, Sydney Mae II Tragedies Still Haunt Oregon’s Charter Fishing Business

2003: Wreck of the Taki Tooo on the Tillamook Bar

If you’ve ever visited the NW coast, you must have seen the charter sportfishing boats lined up at the dock surrounded by enticing signs and banners showing happy customers posing with the big tuna, salmon or bottom fish they have caught. If you have been out on one of these boats, or considered buying a ticket, you might have wondered about the safety record of this fleet, and the level of proficiency of the skipper and crew. But you would be reassured to know that all the boats and the skippers are officially certified by the US Coast Guard.

Unfortunately that didn’t help the 17 passengers and two crew on the Taki-Tooo, a 32-foot  charter fishing boat based in Garibaldi on Tillamook Bay on the north Oregon coast in mid June, 2003. The boat made its last voyage that day. Eleven people were drowned and eight survived when it capsized on the Tillamook Bar. (Reading this again in 2018, I am surprised at that number: 19 people on a 32 footer is quite a crowd and the standard CG maximum is 12.

A Coast Guard 47-foot lifeboat was on the scene within minutes, but the charter boat, passengers and crew were quickly swept around the north jetty into the surf. The capsize occurred in view of people strolling on Barview Beach, and many waded out to drag the exhausted survivors clear of the breakers. The Coast Guard helicopter that arrived from the Astoria airbase about 30 minutes after the accident was only able to locate and hoist two bodies from the water.

Taki-Tooo was one of four charter boats that ventured out that morning, despite a series of warnings about the sea conditions.  Big swells had been hitting the coast for the previous 24 hours, causing the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration to broadcast a small-craft advisory on the evening of June 13. That alert was increased to a storm-swell warning at 0330 on June 14. In addition, an extremely low tide was predicted for 0744.

The conditions led the Garibaldi Coast Guard station to post the “rough-bar” warning, prohibiting recreational craft and uninspected commercial fishing vessels from transiting the bar. (The Coast Guard 47-footer was actually patrolling inside the harbor to enforce this closure.) The majority of the local charter fleet also remained at the dock, despite it being Father’s Day weekend, the traditional start of the summer season. Some boats gave their passengers refunds. Davis’ 17 guests had each paid $70 for six hours of bottom-fishing, meaning he would have had to hand over about $1200…

Nonetheless, four charter operators cast off around 0600. Their plan was to wait midway down the channel between the mile-long jetties until the tide stopped ebbing. The skippers were assuming that the 12- to 15-foot breaking waves visible on the bar would then subside. After a 45-minute wait, the two biggest boats, the 42-foot Norwester and the 44-foot Oakland Pilot, decided it was time to go. They reached the ocean safely but radioed back that it had been a very rough ride. The 32-foot D&D went next. The fourth boat was not so lucky!

There were numerous witnesses to the capsize. The eight survivors of Taki-Tooo all stated that the boat was parallel to the wave that struck it. One stated that skipper Doug Davis had shifted into reverse, possibly to avoid slamming into one of the two logs bobbing loose by the north jetty

Crew on the other boats reported that the boat had turned north out of the channel and close to the end of the north jetty. They suggested Taki-Tooo might have been trying to avoid a drifting log, or even attempting to break out of the entrance by running the trough.

Taki-Tooo’s skipper had 17 years of experience on the boat and had crossed the bar as many as 1,000 times. He did not survive in the 50° water. His deck hand was the 22-year-old daughter of the boat’s owner. She survived without a life jacket by removing her boots and outer clothing and swimming ashore; she was treated for hypothermia at the local hospital. This accident dramatically illustrated the crucial role life jackets play in survival rates.

None of the 11 dead was wearing a life jacket, while five of the eight survivors were. The five had been trapped in the upturned cabin, where all the life jackets had spilled from their storage locker. All the boat’s mechanical systems checked out after it was recovered from the surf. Local fishermen pointed to shoaling of the entrance channel as a possible cause of the disaster.

Tillamook is one of several small harbors on the Oregon coast that have lost federal funding for regular dredging, and no dredging has taken place since 1976. However, the Corps of Engineers conducted its annual survey two weeks later and found the minimum depth to be 24 feet, 6 feet over the minimum required depth of 18 feet.

A federal law passed in 1996 was supposed to ensure that all charter-boat passengers would be wearing life jackets in hazardous conditions like those often encountered on the Tillamook Bar. It was inspired by the 1986 capsize of the charter boat Merry Jane in the entrance to Bodega Bay, Calif. That accident cost the lives of nine of the 51 people onboard, none of whom was wearing a life jacket. This amendment to the federal regulations governing small passenger vessels compels masters to require passengers to don life jackets only when possibly hazardous conditions exist. The list of potentially dangerous conditions specified by the regulations includes transiting hazardous bars or inlets and severe weather.

Following the accident and an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, the Coast Guard issued a safety alert concerning life jackets. “The Coast Guard has entrusted small-passenger-vessel masters to use their judgment to determine when to require the passengers to wear life jackets,” the alert said. “Donning life jackets when possibly hazardous conditions exist may make passengers apprehensive, but this precaution can easily be explained as similar to wearing seat belts during aircraft take-offs and landings and periods of turbulence. The wearing of life jackets is a safety measure required for passenger protection. The best time to don a life jacket is before it is needed — before people are in the water.”

Some charter skippers say that since they would never go out in hazardous conditions, their passengers don’t need to wear life jackets. A Catch 22 of a viewpoint not shared by the Coast Guard shares.

Note: I traveled down the coast to research this wreck and found the crushed remains of the fiberglass boat on a trailer in the sheriff’s compound. There was a memorial of flowers and cards at the boat’s berth.

• Seven of the dead worked for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF).

• Ten years later, the Oregonian newspaper interviewed some of the survivors and found they were still traumatized by the tragedy.
  

• The NTSB report came out two years later. It found that the captain had been taking prescription sleeping pills–amitriptyline and nortriptyline–known to impair reaction and had traces in samples taken from his corpse.

Two Court Cases Find Skippers Guilty of “Seaman’s Manslaughter.”

Two weeks before Taki-Tooo capsized, there was a court hearing on a similar incident on the Tillamook Bar in May 2002, when the 25-foot charter boat Ted’s was struck by a wave and capsized. The two passengers onboard were not wearing life jackets and drowned. The Coast Guard held the skipper responsible, and in July 2003, Coast Guard Administrative Law Judge Edwin M. Bladen revoked the skipper’s license to operate uninspected passenger vessels.

Judge Bladen found that the skipper failed to routinely conduct a safety briefing before getting underway and failed to post emergency instruction signs required by federal regulations. Bladen made repeated references to the skipper’s “cavalier attitude” toward life jackets. In his verdict, he wrote, “Respondent’s view of the utility of life jackets suggests to me that he has life jackets onboard his charter fishing vessel as a tolerated nuisance. I also see his idiosyncratic view contributing to his historical avoidance of the safety orientation requirements.”

2005: Wreck of the Sydney Mae II on the Umpqua Bar

Richard J. Oba, of Winchester Bay, was the owner and captain of the Sydney Mae II, a 38 foot boat he used to conduct fishing charters. The boat sank while he was attempting to cross the Umpqua River Bar in Oregon on Sept. 19, 2005, has pleaded guilty to three counts of seaman’s manslaughter. In return for pleading guilty, the charter boat captain avoided a jury trial and was sentenced to six years imprisonment, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton. Had the case gone to trial and the captain been convicted, he could have been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for each death, for a total of up to 30 years.

The captain appeared at a sentencing hearing in federal court on April 2, which I attended. His attorney, Per Ramfjord, said that his client is guilty only of negligence, did not intend to cross the bar without Coast Guard permission, and was only attempting to inspect the conditions on the bar when his boat was struck by an unusually large wave. Three passengers aboard his 38’ boat, Sydney Mae II, died as a result of the accident.

The Umpqua is one of 14 bars in the Northwest to be rated as a “restricted area”-meaning the Coast Guard can ban uninspected vessels below a certain length if the conditions warrant. According to Ramfjord, “He never intended to cross the bar without permission and consistently acted to ensure the safety of all on board. He did provide a safety briefing and didn’t knowingly pilot the Sydney Mae II into waters he knew to be dangerous. The wave that struck the boat was unanticipated and the sinking was purely accidental.”

U.S. Attorney Karin Immergut will argue that the captain intended to cross the bar without permission and was therefore guilty of reckless negligence. Under federal sentencing guidelines, the captain faces 12 to 18 months in prison if he was merely negligent and 41 to 51 months if he is judged to have been recklessly negligent. Immergut observed that just two months before the accident, the captain had attended a safety meeting with other charter boat operators at the Umpqua River Coast Guard station where bar restrictions were a primary topic.

In a written statement, Immergut said, “The safety of our charter boat fleet depends on captains acting responsibly. When captains operate their boats unsafely and people are killed, they must be held accountable.” She observed that just two months before the accident, the captain had attended a safety meeting with other charter boat operators at the Umpqua River Coast Guard station where bar restrictions were a primary topic.

In December, the National Transportation Safety Board faulted the captain for using poor judgment in approaching the bar and ignoring multiple warnings not to cross the bar. It said his decision to allow passengers to go without life jackets led to the deaths. The federal criminal indictment said Coast Guard officials repeatedly broadcast warnings about the hazardous conditions at the crossing and spoke with the captain several times throughout the evening. The indictment also stated that the captain never conducted a safety briefing, never told his passengers where the life jackets were stowed and was the only one wearing a life jacket when the boat was swamped.

The captain, 50, has 30 years of maritime experience. The Sydney Mae II was a motor yacht operating under the Coast Guard’s “six-pack” charter regulations. In a written statement, Immergut said, “The safety of our charter boat fleet depends on captains acting responsibly. When captains operate their boats unsafely and people are killed, they must be held accountable.” A 47-foot Coast Guard boat eventually rescued the captain and one passenger, James Parker, 59, at 2111, after they had been in the water about 40 minutes.

The 160-year-old federal seaman’s manslaughter statute makes it a crime for a captain, engineer, pilot or other person employed on a vessel to cause a death through negligence. It allows for up to 10 years per death, but has been used only a handful of times in the past century. It has been applied more frequently in recent years, including the New York ferry crash that killed 11 passengers in 2003.

The judge found it ironic that the skipper was clutching a life preserver when a Coast Guard motor lifeboat crew plucked him from the surf. Among the exhibits considered by the judge was a Feb. 25, 2003, article in the Longview, Wash., Daily News, in which the skipper downplayed the importance of life jackets. “I’ve fished for 60 years on the high seas, and I’ve never worn one,” he was quoted as saying. “They’re uncomfortable. They’re big and cumbersome.” The skipper has stated his intention to appeal the judge’s decision, saying that he had a good safety record and a modern, well-equipped boat.

2007: Captain Falls Overboard, Passengers Unable to Help Him

The captain and owner of the 40-foot charter fishing boat Three Bears died May 13, 2007 after falling overboard about 15 miles southwest of Newport, Ore., on a calm sunny day. Skipper Jim Edson remained alongside the boat in the 51° water holding onto a life ring but lost consciousness within five minutes. He was not wearing a life jacket.

According to one of the passengers, Casey Roberts, who had just hooked a halibut, Edson was helping him land the fish when he rolled over the waist-high rail. Two passengers were able to reach over the side and hold onto Edson, but were unable to lift him out of the water. Roberts put on a life jacket and jumped in, but was also unable to assist Edson, who was 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed over 300 pounds. Roberts was then pulled back onto the deck.

A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter arrived at the site approximately 15 minutes after receiving the emergency radio call. A rescue swimmer went into the water and was able to move Edson onto a litter. The helicopter then winched him from the water and flew him to Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport, where he was pronounced dead. The coroner’s report revealed that Edson’s death was the result of asphyxiation by drowning with hypothermia as a contributing factor.

Edson had worked in the local fishing industry for 30 years and was regarded as a safety-conscious captain who didn’t hesitate to call off a trip if the weather was doubtful. However, he recently spoke out against making life jackets mandatory on charter boats.

1998: this all began me for when I attended the court case over the loss of the 46-foot charter boat Cougar of Depoe Bay that sank while tuna fishing, resulting in four deaths. The vessel was not equipped with basic safety devices such as life rafts and EPIRB.

A quick walk along your local “charter boat row” reveals that Coast Guard regulations for charter boats do not require ANY gear such as steps on the transom or a ladder that would allow someone who fell overboard to climb back into the boat. (A glaring and fatal omission in my opinion!)