Story Photos
 Photo by Roger Werth With the hog line in the distance, Coast Guard seaman Gabriel Aldrich, left, and boatsmate Eric Olson steady a 'can' buoy before it is placed in the Columbia River off the mouth of the Cowlitz River Wednesday morning. |
Columbia buoy aims to keep boaters safe
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 11:22 PM PDT
By Leslie Slape
Printable version
E-mail this articleAs the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Bluebell edged closer to the hog line near the mouth of the Cowlitz River, commanding officer David Dixson smiled.
"All the fishing boats are where they should be, they're perfect," Dixson said.
But sometimes a fishing boat or pleasure craft meanders into the deep draft shipping channel off of Longview and into the path of oncoming freighters.
So the Bluebell and its 15-member crew Wednesday morning set out a permanent buoy, clearly defining the shipping channel boundary to fishermen and other boats.
"We need to establish the boundary here so that everyone can share the water safely," Dixson said. "When a fishermen is in the way, what looks like a safe distance to him is often too late for a deep-draft vessel to react."
During last year's fall salmon fishing season, the Bluebell set up the buoy in the same place in August but hauled it in by October.
"Everyone involved said there was no real reason to pull it out," Dixson said.
Stu Richard, a Columbia River Pilot who lives in Kalama, is pleased the buoy is there to stay.
"Sometimes it's hard for fishermen to get a grip on where the channel is," Richard said.
So far, no injury collision between a fishermen and a shipping vessel has occurred, though fishermen report some near misses.
Richard noted that most anglers obey channel boundaries, and "every once in a while, you get someone that just doesn't want to move and wants the ships to go around."
The 100-foot, 67-year-old Bluebell plys the Columbia River from Astoria to Lewiston, Idaho, working mainly on buoys. After setting the Longview buoy Wednesday morning, it chugged upriver to set a temporary buoy near Columbia City upriver of Rainier.
The Columbia City buoy is needed because "there is a big left hand corner and nothing marking the inside of the channel for fishermen," Richard said.
Al Guist, 58, of Rainier has been fished on the river for the past 12 years and has seen both fishermen and shipping vessel pilots break the rules.
"It's a zoo, it's comical at times," Guist said, saying some pilots fail to blown horns or reduce speeds. But he's also seen anglers flatly refuse to clear a path for freighters.
Guist said he doesn't know how much the buoy will help because "it didn't help a lot last year. People just lined up wherever out into the river."
Increasing law enforcement on the river would be the best way to make sure anglers stay out of shipping lanes, Guist said.
Mark Maker, 49, owner of Marks Guide Service out of Toutle, said he hopes the buoy does its job.
"There really is a problem with boats anchoring too far out. I'm sure river captains are pulling their hair out," Maker said. "I've seen some boats bounce off the side of some ships. The (buoy) marks the channel and that's the law. ... But people will still anchor out there."
In the meantime, Dixson said he hopes the buoy's year-round presence reminds anglers to stay on their side of the line.
"We're trying to make it safer."
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