Unalaska, AK – A freight barge ran aground early this morning at Humpy Cove on Unalaska Island, northeast of the town of Unalaska/Dutch Harbor.

Tugboat crews were working this afternoon to pull the 271-foot vessel loose from the shore, where it drifted after breaking free of a nearby mooring buoy early in the morning. Coast Guard Public Affairs Officer Kurt Fredrickson said that while local Coast Guard personnel had yet to fully inspect the vessel, what damage they've found so far has been minimal.

"They noticed some damage where it went up on the rocks," he said. "A contracted diver went down and did an inspection, but the water wasn't clear enough to tell if there was any damage to the bottom of the barge."

Fredrickson said that because the barge was traveling under tow and didn't have its own fuel supply (although there are what appear to be fuel tanks on the deck), there's little reason to worry about the environmental damage that often follows ship groundings.

"The good thing is there's no fuel in the barge--it's just a transport barge," he said. "So there's no pollution in the water at this time."

The barge was tied alongside another similar vessel moored to a buoy west of Humpy Cove, but apparently detached sometime early this morning. Fredrickson says a tugboat reported the barge drifting at about 5:30 a.m., but at that time it had yet to hit land. Winds were gusting from the west at about 46 miles per hour at the time.

The barge is owned by Portland, Ore.-based Zidell Marine Corp., and under contract to Seattle-based Western Towboat, Inc. Western Towboat port captain Jeff Slesinger said the barge was on its last supply run of the season up to the northeastern Bering Sea and Kuskokwim Delta area.