All 20,000 pounds of ammonia on board the processing vessel Excellence have vented.  Coast Guard Lt. James Fothergill said a marine chemist visited the ship Thursday afternoon, and certified that it is now safe for personnel to enter.

Magone Marine towed the Excellence back to their dock from Wide Bay for repairs. While the ship is being fixed, its crew will offload 300 tons of frozen pollock stored inside since the accident. Excellence crew first reported the ammonia leak last Friday, while the ship was tied up at the Kloosterboer cold storage dock. The leak didn’t stop until Wednesday afternoon.

The crew of 130 has been in Unalaska for the past week, staying at processors and the Grand Aleutian Hotel. They cleaned parks and picked up trash yesterday to show appreciation for the community. But a manager from Premier Pacific Seafoods, the company that operates the Excellence, says they’re eager to leave town and finish the pollock season.

The Excellence will stay in Unalaska until the Coast Guard is finished collecting evidence for their investigation into the accident. Fothergill says processing the evidence could take months. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration, or OSHA, will also investigate the accident.

The ammonia leak injured three people. One was an Excellence crew member, and two of them were Alpha Welding employees. The welders had come aboard to fix the broken ammonia line, and were medevaced to Anchorage.