U.S. Coast Guard Refuses to Document “America’s Finest”; Congressional Action Still Possible
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] by Peggy Parker - September 21, 2017
In a letter dated August 31 to Dakota Creek Industries (DCI), the National Vessel Documentation Center (NVDC) found that the state-of-the-art catcher processor ‘America’s Finest’ will “not be eligible to be issued a Certificate of Documentation with fishery or coastwise endorsements upon completion of construction” at DCI.
Without this document, the vessel is not eligible to fish in US waters.
This is the latest, but certainly not the last determination on whether the 262-foot ’America’s Finest’, built as the most “environmental and carbon footprint friendly” vessel in the Bering Sea, will be fishing there this coming winter.
The problem rests in the vessel’s highly efficient hull shape which “reduces hull resistance when sailing in ice or at open sea,” according to the ship’s architects. The hull was built using steel plates that were cold formed in the Netherlands. Those foreign-processed plates were about 7 percent of the total weight of the steel hull, surpassing the Jones Act...
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