Ship with history of safety, pollution violations moored indefinitely in Tacoma

A 77-year-old fishing ship with a reputation of pollution and safety violations has been docked on the Foss Waterway in Tacoma since August after smashing into a private pier and raising concerns about its integrity. Its owner said he doesn’t know when it will leave.

The fishing vessel Pacific Producer arrived at its current location on Aug. 29, according to a nearby condo resident.

“It’s posing a significant threat to the health and safety of our community and the surrounding environment,” said Melissa Malott, executive director of Communities for a Healthy Bay, a Tacoma-based environmental advocacy non-profit.

The 472 gross ton, 169-foot-long boat was built in 1946 and has been working in Alaskan waters until recently. It’s registered to East West Seafoods of Seattle.

In July, an Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation was opened but was delayed when the ship left Alaska for Seattle. On Jan. 12, OSHA cited East West for 20 violations including 17 listed as “serious.” It assessed $208,983 in fines with abatement required by Feb. 23.

“Working in the Alaskan fishing industry – an occupation already regarded as one of the nation’s most dangerous – employees aboard the F/V Pacific Producer faced dangers purely of their employer’s making,” OSHA said in a statement.

OSHA Acting Regional Administrator Jack Rector said fishing employees depend on their employer to have strong safety protocols in place.

“For more than a decade, our inspectors have found disgusting and dangerous conditions aboard the F/V Pacific Producer, and the well-being of crews aboard the vessel are at great risk because of its owner’s failures,” Rector said. “This employer’s blatant and continued disregard for crews aboard the F/V Pacific Producer must end before tragedy strikes. The U.S. Department of Labor and its federal partners will use their full enforcement powers to hold East West Seafoods and Christos Tsabouris accountable for their callous neglect and contempt for federal workplace safety standards.”

The violations cover a wide range of standards, including respiratory protection, a lack of fire protection, exposed wiring. hazard communication and components of the ship. All of the violations were contested by East West on Feb. 9, according to OSHA.

“Inspectors found murky, brown water in the ship’s drinking water system; crew members being served expired food; water used to process fish leaking into dry food storage and the galley’s dining area; and other unsanitary conditions throughout the vessel,” OSHA said.

The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed on Friday that it had invalidated the Pacific Producer’s certificate of compliance, halting East West’s operation of the ship until repairs are made.

Troubled history

The violations and fines are nothing new for the company and its owner since 2012, Christos Tsabouris.

The ship has had similar OSHA violations dating to 2012, including sanitation, electrical, fire hazards and an ammonia leak in 2018.

In 2017, East West Seafoods was fined $50,000 in federal court after it intentionally discharged oily bilge water and raw sewage from the Pacific Producer into the ocean off the Alaskan coast.

It then presented false records to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The discharge violated the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, the Clean Water Act and the Refuse Act, according to the Justice Department.

East West Seafoods was placed on five years of probation and Tsabouris was fined $10,000 and given five years probation.

In a brief phone interview on Wednesday, Tsabouris said he can’t move the boat because of “legal papers” but denied it had anything to do with the OSHA violations.

“We are still working on it so we don’t have anything definite yet,” he told The News Tribune.

Tsabouris, who said he lives in Tacoma, moved the boat to the Foss Waterway because he couldn’t find moorage in Seattle. He said he plans to return it to service as a seafood processor.

Moored in Tacoma

According to a tenant at the nearby Petrich Marine Dock, the ship arrived there on August 7 by smashing into a dock.

“They had 10 people on deck screaming at each other and then they came in too fast,” said Freddy Neumayer, who witnessed the arrival. “It was pandemonium.”

The marina’s owner and 20-year Port of Tacoma commissioner, Clare Petrich, said Tsabouris has yet to repair or pay for the damage. Pacific Producer moored at her dock for less than two weeks before moving back out in to Commencement Bay, Neumayer said.

On August 29, the ship returned to the Foss Waterway, this time at the old J.M. Martinac shipyard at 401 East 15th Street.

During the ship’s first August visit to the Foss, the Pacific Producer’s antenna reportedly clipped the 11th Street bridge. According to the city, inspector Chad Norman didn’t note any damage to the bridge structure during a later inspection.

The city’s role

The city of Tacoma does not regulate vessel traffic — that’s the purview of the state and Coast Guard. The city does regulate the installation of moorage and docking infrastructure under its shoreline code. That’s what brought an inspector from the city’s Planning and Development Services to the site on March 20.

The inspector found an illegal floating dock had been added to the site — a violation of city code.

“Staff will coordinate with state agencies to work on correcting violation,” the city said in a statement. “Next steps would involve either procuring required permits for the floating docks/moorage or removal of those docks.”

Ecology

The state Department of Ecology has no jurisdiction over ships — just the spills that may result from a sinking, leak or accident. Sometimes, those include deliberate unlawful purges of fuel, oil, sewage and other fluids.

The agency does not proactively engage with ships, said Ty Keltner, a spokesperson for DOE’s spill prevention program. Instead, the agency responds to reports of pollution.

“We can’t proactively ban somebody or take some kind of action just because they’re there,” Keltner said.

DOE is aware of the illegal dock installed for the Pacific Producer, DOE spokesperson Jeff Zenk said.

“We will provide technical assistance and support to the city of Tacoma,” Zenk said. “It would be city of Tacoma that would actually enforce that.”

According to records with the Secretary of State’s office, East West last filed as a corporation in November 2021. The office noted that an annual report was due on March 1, 2023. East West has a history of delinquent annual reports that date back to at least 2018.

East West’s business address is a private mailbox rental service in Seattle.

Pacific Producers has raised the concerns of Communities for a Healthy Bay since the ship arrived in August. The group said it reported their concerns to the U.S. Coast Guard and the city.

“It’s crucial that the authorities take action and remove the vessel from our waters before it causes any further harm,” Malott said.