The search for two fishermen who have been missing since a sea urchin dragger sank on October 20 in Cobscook Bay has so far not yielded any results, but efforts will be continuing. With the October 20 sinking of the Bottom Basher, a 34-foot dragger out of Lubec, three lives were lost. The body of Daryl Cline, 41, of Machiasport has been recovered, having been found near Shackford's Head, Eastport, while Joseph Jones, 28, of Trescott and Norman Johnson, 57, of Cutler remain missing.

Within a seven-month period five urchin fishermen have died in Cobscook Bay. Last March, the All American, fishing out of Lubec, sank very rapidly, killing the captain, Loren Lank, 54, of Lubec, who was found, and the deck hand, Logan Preston, 19, of Roque Bluffs. Searchers have also been looking for that vessel and its missing crewman.

The Bottom Basher was last seen by another fisherman around 3 p.m. on October 20 east of Falls Island, Trescott. A fisherman near Crow's Neck on the other side of Falls Island never saw the vessel return to its home base at the Edmunds boat landing, according to Lt. Alan Talbot of the Maine Marine Patrol. The sinking would have occurred on an ebb tide that was fairly high-running. Talbot notes that there are particularly strong currents around Falls Island.

For three days, from November 3 through 5, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) hydrographic survey team, in partnership with the Maine Marine Patrol, the U.S. Coast Guard and others, used state-of-the-art echo sounding survey equipment to search for the boat in the area around Falls Island and Leighton Point in Pembroke. The NOAA survey team came up to the area through the efforts of U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe's Bangor office and Captain Bob Peacock of Eastport.

The side-scan sonar that was used gives a very high-resolution image, being at a higher frequency than normal sonar, and is used for hurricane response missions. "It's very good for finding objects on the bottom," says Lt. Matthew Jaskoski, who was part of the NOAA team. It was used both on the Marine Patrol's Boston whaler and Peacock Canning's Medric II. The Medric II also was used as a platform for the operation, with a heated trailer mounted on the deck. In addition, the Maine Forest Service's mobile command center was brought to Edmunds to assist. Bob Peacock notes that over 40 people assisted with the search, including inmates from the Downeast Correctional Facility who welded brackets to hold the sonar, and personnel from Cooke Aquaculture, Peacock Canning, the Lubec highway crew, Ramsdell Construction and Sheldon Stanley Construction. "The hospitality of the area in Eastport was like I've never seen," says Lt. Commander Matthew Wingate of the NOAA team. "It was an incredible community effort."

The Marine Patrol had used its side-scan sonar in the search following the sinking of the All American last March, but it does not produce a high-definition image like the NOAA instrument. Although it's been suggested that a magnetometer might be more useful in finding the boats, Jaskoski notes that the vessels are fiberglass and a magnetometer would have to be "right on top" of any metal to detect it. "The side-scan sonar gives a broad range" in looking for objects, he says.

Although there are no immediate plans to bring the side-scan sonar back to this area, Wingate says that the NOAA charts of the area are old, with the bay not having been surveyed since 1892, and he will propose that NOAA conduct a new underwater survey of the area, using the side-scan, at some point.

Two areas of interest were found by the side-scan sonar, near Dram Island and Leighton Point, according to Wingate, and after the NOAA team left, two Marine Patrol officers who are members of the State Police dive team dove at those sites on November 7. The site by Dram Island turned out to be a ledge, but the current became too strong to determine what is located at the Leighton Point site. On November 10 the Medric II looked at the Leighton Point site again using an underwater camera provided by Cooke Aquaculture that is used to monitor the feeding of fish at salmon farms. A cable leading toward an object near Leighton Point was found, says Peacock, but he says the search is "like looking for a needle in a haystack."

Lt. Talbot says the dive team will be conducting a training in Cobscook Bay sometime after the first of December and will look again at possible locations of the sunken vessels. "I suspect we will never know the cause, or it will be speculative at best," he comments.

Other draggers lost

Along with the Bottom Basher and the All American, other scallop or urchin draggers that have sunk in or near Cobscook Bay, possibly after their drags caught on bottom, include the Surf Tide off West Quoddy Head in 1990, with the loss of one life; the Jodie Lynn off Denbow Point in 1994; the Four Sisters off Eastport in 1996; the Scrappy-Doo near Goose Island in Cobscook Bay in 1999; and the Matthew and Mark near Falls Island in 2002. In addition, other vessels have had close calls or sunk for other reasons in this area.

The sinkings have raised questions about the stability of small draggers. Garry Moores of Lubec, who is a commercial fishing vessel safety examiner for the U.S. Coast Guard, inspects the safety equipment on fishing boats. Although he is now a civilian, he served for 31 years in the Coast Guard. Moores does not check on vessel integrity or stability or fishing equipment, and he notes that there is no Coast Guard requirement that commercial fishing vessels under 79 feet in length have a stability inspection. He points out, though, that there is a safety issue with the small draggers, since boats that have been designed for lobster fishing are being rigged for dragging, which "is not part of the design."

The boats are towing heavy drags across a bottom that fishermen may not know that well, in currents that may be strong. If the drag gets caught on bottom, the vessel may roll or be pulled under. "It's a very dangerous operation," Moores says.

Most of the urchin and scallop draggers in Downeast Maine have a fixed A-frame that holds a towing block for the cable high over the deck and up to 20 feet above the water. "It works, but it's not an ideal rig," says fisherman Scott Emery of Eastport. "It's quick and easy to rig and doesn't cost much money." He adds that he has no doubt the rigging "creates quite a hazard."

Both Emery and urchin fisherman Milton Chute of Lubec are among those who have rigged their boats so they can lower the block when dragging. Chute, though, estimates that over half of the boats in the area don't drop the block. If the drag gets caught and "the tide catches you and the block is up, you'll flip over," he says. He believes boats would no longer be sinking from having their drags fetch up on bottom "if everybody towed down low."

Moores observes that as the height of the towing block increases, the vessel's stability decreases, if its drag should catch on bottom. If the drag does fetch up, crew members have to get quickly to the throttle in the pilothouse to take the boat out of gear or release the brake on the winch that's on the deck. He says a tension block that would release when there's too much strain on the cable would be expensive and very difficult to set up, since the weight of each vessel and drag is different. Lowering the towing block would increase vessel stability, though. Lt. Talbot agrees that having a high towing block can lead to a vessel quickly sinking if the drag gets caught down and the tide is strong.

Moores says the Coast Guard would like to see regulations for vessel stability and fishing equipment on fishing boats under 79 feet, but Congress would have to enact a law, and fishermen's associations would have to push for it. "Somebody should be pushing for more regulations on these small vessels," he says.

Chute believes fishermen should assume more of the responsibility for fishing vessel safety. Emery, who is vice president of the Cobscook Bay Fishermen's Association, says the association may discuss the issue. "I think you'll see some changes coming" on how small vessels are rigged for dragging, he says.

Of the sinkings and loss of lives, Moores comments, "I hope the community doesn't just forget this after a while. I hope something good comes out of this."