ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Salvors on Friday attempted to raise a 63-foot U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service vessel that sank overnight while docked at a Kodiak harbor. The Arlluk, a federal research vessel that's used by two Alaska Peninsula wildlife refuges, was found submerged at 3:30 a.m. in Kodiak's St. Herman's Harbor. No one was on board. The cause of the sinking was unknown, Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Bruce Woods said. "It's unlikely that they'll be able to speculate as to the cause until after they get the ship up," he said. Divers were on site, and salvors hoped to raise the vessel by Saturday before a storm moves in. The Arlluk was carrying an estimated 1,500 gallons of diesel fuel. The Coast Guard estimated no more than 10 gallons spilled. "That's a lot better than it could have been," Woods said. Arlluk means "killer whale" in Alutiiq, the language of indigenous Alaska Natives in the Kodiak Island Archipelago, Woods said. The vessel was built in 1979 and named the Caroline, Woods said. The Drug Enforcement Agency seized it in the late 1990s and used it for about a decade as an undercover vessel. In 2009, the DEA reclassified it as government surplus. Continued... |