Another blacklisted tramper arrives in Unalaska


Monday, June 18 2007
Unalaska, AK – With the fate of the illegal tramper Polestar and its cargo still up in the air in Morocco, a second pirate vessel has been spotted near Dutch Harbor.
The vessel Seed Leaf arrived over the weekend, according to Dutch Harbor port officials, and is now anchored in Captains Bay off Unalaska Island. The Panama-flagged tramper was blacklisted by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources after it was caught shipping undocumented fish in February of last year. It apparently is owned by Sandnes Dampskibs, a Norwegian shipping company.
The National Marine Fisheries Service posted a notice on its website on Saturday warning that the Seed Leaf was approaching Dutch Harbor. Agency spokeswoman Monica Allen says that NMFS doesn't plan to contact directly any companies that may be doing business with the Seed Leaf. NMFS's authority over blacklisted ships in American waters is still unclear. The agency is in the process of writing the rules outlining what it can do in these cases, and began taking public comment on them earlier this month.
Alaska Vessel Agents, the company that handles booking for the Seed Leaf in Dutch Harbor, wouldn't say which seafood company was working with the ship.