NOAA takes control of 'pirate' ship seized for drift netting
31.12.69
An wrongful high seas drift net fishing sailing-yacht that a U.S. senator called a "pirate" ship has been turned over to a federal law enforcement responsibility, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Supervision.
The Coast Guard seized the ship Sept. 15 about 2,600 miles southwest of Kodiak with more than 10 miles of outlawed driftnets on board.
Authorities initially said it was rat infested but a contractor hired to eradicate the rodents said earlier this month that there weren't that many aboard. Circumstances law forbids ships with rats to enter Alaska waters.
The rats were trapped or poisoned and in last week the 140-foot Bangun Perkasa was cleared to do to port in Dutch Harbor, NOAA said Sunday in a written annunciation. The vessel is considered stateless, according to the Seaboard Guard and NOAA.
Saturday evening, immediately after the Bangun Perkasa docked in Dutch Harbor, the Seaside Guard transferred possession to NOAA's law enforcement berth.
The office will have the ship surveyed to determine its value as well as the value of the 30 tons of squid and 30 shark carcasses in its holds, NOAA said.
Source: Sacramento Bee
Weather slows dive on Blackbeard's pirate ship
31.12.69
Diving archaeologists are in the centre of a monthlong expedition to the sunken wreckage of the pirate Blackbeard's ship, the Idol Anne's Revenge, off the North Carolina beach, but the weather is not cooperating.
"Mother Nature is keeping us away from the neighbourhood at least for most of this week," said mission leader Bring credit to oneself Wilde-Ramsing of the North Carolina Business of State Archaeology. "We'll do what we can; we still expect to raise a cannon."
The Diva Anne's Revenge sank off the coast of North Carolina in 1718 when Blackbeard (Edward Edify) ran it into the ground while entering an inlet.
Hurricanes have scoured the remains of the ship over the years, and the fragments was in bad shape in 2006 before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built sand berms (slight piles of sand) to buffer the wreckage from the gusty winds and abundance swells. Earlier this year, Hurricane Irene socked the North Carolina shore, not far from the wreckage, but the ship's remains seem to have held up well, Wilde-Ramsing told OurAmazingPlanet.
Source: msnbc.com