Crabbing Fatality

freespool · 02-13-2005, 11:24 AM

One dead, one missing and one saved at Alsea Bay. Here we go again, only this time it resulted in death. Crabbing the out going tide at the jaws is just not safe. Don't do it, crab or fish or whatever are not worth risking the lives of your passengers. Get a tide book, learn how to read it, and for crying out loud, stay away from the jaws on the ebb. And always wear your PFD's.

salmon hugger

greenbuttskunk · 02-13-2005, 11:31 AM

I can't even imagine being anywhere near any bay mouth or jaws on an ebb tide. At the least, have a reliable back up source of power. This stuff is so sad, and happens far too often. My deepest condolences to the families involved.

Kalamanator · 02-13-2005, 11:48 AM

I have another DUMB question. What is an ebb tide?

crabbait · 02-13-2005, 11:53 AM

Flood = incoming
Ebb = outgoing

fishchaser · 02-13-2005, 11:54 AM

The EBB tide is the tide in which the outgoing tide runs it's fastest, and fierce.

It is also something to respect.

seabass · 02-13-2005, 04:44 PM

At least have an anchor and plenty of rope ready to throw. Happens too often. Make sure that your anchor is readily accessible.

freespool · 02-13-2005, 05:06 PM

Seabass, that's some sound advise. But what I'm trying to get across here is, don't put yourself in the danger zone in the first place. If your going to crab near the jaws, do it on the incoming tide. When the the tide swings out, pull your pots and crab father up the bay. I think a little common sense can go a long way here, if it looks funny to you, don't do it.

salmon hugger

LQQKASTAR · 02-13-2005, 05:17 PM

is throwing your anchor the right thing to do

?
i dont know.
i have went across some rough bars in others peoples boats. then as soon as we got outside all was fine.

i just seams to me that you might want to float it out and use your oars to keep you straight to the waves, as compared to anchoring yourself in the middle of an ebb tide.
granted if your just in the bay and it looks like your headed that way... throw anchor, and have alot of rope :shocked:

please inform me, i really dont know.
i know to stay out of that situation, and to drop anchor to avoid that situation.

but what if im in the mouth, and take a good one that kills the motor, then what?

no flames please,its just a question.

thanks all

5-Cents · 02-13-2005, 05:32 PM

If you have a choice of hitting a breaking bar with oars or throw an anchor and call for help

...

THROW ANCHOR!

This is the first thing I thought of when I read this story in the paper. It sounds like these three guys had a small gas engine and an electric kicker but the kicker got submerged and shorted out when they got in trouble. If they had a good anchor and rope all this might not have happened!

RvW · 02-13-2005, 06:03 PM

Very sad.

Seems like every time something like this happens, IFish is chock full of advice on what not to do. I wish it could be BEFORE people get hurt or die, so maybe a section for safety reminders and tips wouldnt be a bad idea. I really doubt it would take long to hear people say "An old Ifish post saved my life today"

Crabbing the ebb at the jaws isnt a good idea and I have to wonder if this was thier intention to begin with. I have thrown pots out on the High slack only to find them 100 yards towards big blue when I returned on the outgoing.
When your fishing a tide change from high to low, be aware of your pot placement and mark your ropes so you know exactly how close they might be to the rocks and or sandbars when you come back and the tide is significantly lower than it was earlier.
Use weights in your pots/traps. Not only the tide, but sealions can somehow move your pots and traps a fair distance.

Please remember that NO crab or crab trap is worth risking your own life and the life of others. If your traps are in a dangerous position, LEAVE IT until the tide is up and conditions are not a risk.

My condolences to the families of the victims.

seabass · 02-13-2005, 06:30 PM

:smile:

If I am still in the bay when the motor dies, I would definately throw the anchor. If I am near the bar on a flood tide, throw the anchor to stay off the rocks. On an ebb tide, I need to look at the bar and make my decision. I have heard of too many reports where people did not have access to their anchor and then got into trouble. It sounds like these boaters lost motor control THEN got into trouble in the surf. I am not sure that this is the sequence of events but IF I am correct, tossing an anchor may have helped. Too many people head into the bay thinking they are in a lake. Have your anchor ready and wear your life jackets. Yes, a long rope. You only have to pay out as much is needed, don't want to come up short. Also, make sure that the rope is not all tangled, the time spent untangling the rope may put you on the jetty. An anchor tow is easily done!

Seabass

seabass · 02-13-2005, 06:39 PM

Another point to think about. I always warm up my kicker while at the docks. I do this because it takes a while to warm up enough to put it in gear. If the main motor dies while crossing the bar, the little motor is ready to go. The same year that I bought my boat (90) another new owner of a boat similar to mine had his motor die on the bar with a incoming tide. His anchor was under all of his gear and he ended up on the North jetty. All fishermen safely watched the boat get destroyed by the waves. Also have your VHF close by. I have other stories about what a live halibut can do to your boat.

Aufish101 · 02-13-2005, 07:06 PM

I have crabbed at Alsea Bay, at the jaws is no place to be at ebb tide! The bar to big blue there is shallow, rough and always has breakers! The only one I've have seen there is a commercial crabber in a dory type boat. He goes into the breakers, not worth it to me. Low tide to high slack for me.

I feel sorry for all the people involved and hope that we can all learn from their mistakes.

Aufish101

CoyoteRWA · 02-13-2005, 07:40 PM

Unfortunately, this sounds very similar to a situation I found myself in last November. I went crabbing with my friend (in his 22' sled) out of Hammond in later November. The tide forecast called for 10 foot ebb tides. We had not gone out with that much of an exchange before but thought we would give it a try. Boy was that a near mistake.

We dropped our pots about 45 minutes before high slack. Turns out we got a bit of a late start because the other two members of our party were late getting to the dock. Bad start.

Then, after making a couple of runs of the pots, one of our team needed to go back to the dock to take care of some medication (following a recent procedure). We dropped our pots closer to shore and then made a quick run to the dock. This cost us extra time.

By the time we got back to our pots, the ebb tide was in full swing. Talk about dicey. We were chasing pots headed for the middle of the Columbia. Meanwhile, the skipper asked a couple of times to check the gas gage. First time, the gage read 3/4 of a tank. About two hours later, the gas gage read about 3/4 of a tank. ???? Hmmm...

Well, we managed to track down all of our pots but it was a race (and quite an adventure) to keep them from being swept out to the bar and was the most difficult pulls I've ever had. Don't want to do that again.

Next day, my friend (the skipper) called me an told me that his gas gage wasn't working properly the day before. Turns out we had less than a quarter of a tank left when we got back to the dock. Not good.

On the good side we got 2 and a half limits.

Regardless, I don't plan on trying that again with anything close to 10 foot tides.

If we'd run out of gas...

wannacatchem · 02-13-2005, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Very sad.

Seems like every time something like this happens, IFish is chock full of advice on what not to do. I wish it could be BEFORE people get hurt or die, so maybe a section for safety reminders and tips wouldnt be a bad idea. I really doubt it would take long to hear people say "An old Ifish post saved my life today"

An old iFish post did "save" me one day last year. It was about having a sharp knife at hand at all times. Got my anchor rope tangled in my prop and it spun me around bow downstream. The current was rippin pretty good with a good wind chop on the water. Took what seemed like 500 gallons over the stern (probably a couple gallons). Didn't even think about it much, grabbed the knife and cut the rope. I'm thinking that reading that tip, and all the other advice about anchoring in the river kept this rookie from from panicking and losing my boat or worse. A safety section might not be a bad idea. I'm truly sorry for the crabbers involved in this accident and I'm glad I can learn from others mistakes so it won't be too much of a suprise when it happens to me.

flapbreaker · 02-13-2005, 08:01 PM

The odd thing about this incident was that all parties involved were very experienced fisherman. They had fished and crabbed together for some 60years according to the paper. I'm just not sure how they got themselves into this situation.

Siwash · 02-13-2005, 08:37 PM

Coyote and Wanna,

Thanks for your posts. It's easy to second-guess when things go wrong, but these stories show just how easy it is to get crossed up in a matter of seconds. I've been in more ugly situations than I care to remember as a result of choices that appeared unfathomably stupid AFTERwards, but didn't seem nearly so ill-advised beforehand. It's usually not just one really bad decision (since those are hopefully obvious enough), but a series of smaller, incrementally poor choices that adds up to trouble. I know it sounds silly, but it really does take some practice and/or extra effort to honestly evaluate "What's the worst that could happen?" and figure out in advance what your response should be. If you can think of a realistic problem for which you don't have an answer or at least a defensible plan, well... That's why Murphy has a law named after him.

biederboat · 02-13-2005, 08:44 PM

It's bsecause there are old mushroom pickers and bold mushroom pickers but no old and bold mushroom pickers. Sooner or later, it catches up with you like it did for these guys. I sure hope that the Coast Guard doesn't end up taking the flack for what appeared to be a series of "bad luck" mistakes not attributable to any one person's bad judgement.

As much as I feel for the surviving brother and the remaining families, this was flat-out bad judgement on the part of the fishermen. Stay away during an ebb, wear your PFD, have a strong kicker, start it BEFORE you go out, have an anchor, cell phone, VHF, flare gun....all stuff other people have already mentioned but none of which they apparently had. Any single one might have saved ALL their lives.

Biederboat

Mark Mc · 02-13-2005, 09:22 PM

The mouth of the Alsea River is not a navigable bar. 'Aufish' kind-of alluded to this but it may not have been obvious.

The mouth of the Alsea is so shallow, there are always breakers there, except in the 2-days-a-year when there is zero swell. Certainly never in the winter.

So if you get sucked out there, you are pretty much hosed. And there is no local Coast Guard.

Very different scenario from say, Yaquina that not only has a deep entrance, but the Coast Guard is very close, can see you with the naked eye, and can respond very quickly.