‘Seaman’s Manslaughter,’ Coast Guard Says, Referring Barge Deaths to Prosecutors

Oct 31

This aerial photo shows the aftermath of the July 28 accident. Note the fact that the crane on the barge prevents anyone in the pilothouse of the tug from seeing what’s directly in front of them.

The operators of a barge that ran over a Hobie Cat in Biscayne Bay killing three young girls in July yesterday learned they are in the worst kind of trouble. Coast Guard investigators have referred the case for prosecution, specifically with seaman’s manslaughter as the possible charge.

Seaman’s manslaughter is a federal offense that holds vessel owners, officers or crew liable for death that results from their misconduct, negligence or inattention to duty. The penalty is up to 10 years in prison, fines or both.

“After conducting a thorough marine casualty investigation, we’ve referred this case to Department of Justice for criminal investigation to ensure full accountability and help deter similar cases in the future,” said Coast Guard Sector Miami Commander Capt. Frank J. Florio. “As the process moves into this new phase, our thoughts and prayers are with those impacted by this tragic incident.”

The accident happened on July 28 at around 11:15 a.m., when the barge hit the 17-foot catamaran, killing Mila Yankelevich, 7, Erin Victoria Ko Han, 13, and Arielle ‘Ari’ Mazi Buchman, 10. Two other girls were injured in the collision, which happened near Hibiscus and Monument islands off Miami Beach.

From left, Mila Yankelevich, Erin Ko Han and Ari Buchman.

The excursion was part of a youth sailing program under the auspices of the Miami Yacht Club. Their instructor was a 19-year-old camp counselor.

Lawyers for some of the victims praised Coast Guard action in the case.

“This is a sign that the wheels of justice are moving in the right direction,” Attorney Judd Rosen told the Miami Herald (which, by the way, is the best conventional news outlet for coverage of this case). Rosen’s firm represents one of the injured survivors.

“This referral for criminal charges brings our clients a measure of relief that meaningful steps toward justice are being taken,” said Justin B. Shapiro, an attorney for 7-year-old Calena Areyan Gruber, who managed to survive after having been trapped beneath the barge.

The owner of the tug and barge in question is Waterfront Construction. In the lawsuit against Waterfront, Rosen faults the captain and crew of the tug Wood Chuck for failing to keep a proper lookout. Rosen said no one on the tug signalled with its horn even when collision was imminent.

ACCIDENT ILLUSTRATIONS

Without Wind, Kids Couldn’t Escape Fatal Barge Hit, Lawyer Says

Aug 11

Read full story

The Coast Guard has not publicly talked about specific elements of its potential manslaughter case, but it would likely center around the issue of proper lookout.

In its story today, the Miami Herald’s reporting touched on applicable regulations and the rules-of-the-road issues in the case:

Under federal law, commercial tugboats under 26 feet do not require the operator to be a licensed captain. The only requirement is that the operator be a U.S. citizen. A commercial maritime expert told the Herald that tugboat companies often advertise ‘No Licensed Captain Required!’ for pushboats or truckable tugs.
While a licensed captain isn’t required, Coast Guard Navigational Rules still dictate that a lookout must be on board the vessel. Eyewitnesses interviewed by the Herald said they saw a barge crewman warning the tugboat operator only at the last moment before the crash. And other eyewitnesses told the Herald they didn’t hear horns before the crash; navigational rules call for horns to signal when a vessel is approaching.
The Coast Guard’s Rules of Navigation generally grant the right-of-way to sailboats over engine-powered boats, but there are exceptions, including a vessel “restricted in her ability to maneuver.” This is defined in the rules as “a vessel which, from the nature of her work, is restricted in her ability to maneuver as required by these Rules and is therefore unable to keep out of the way of another vessel.” The exception includes one vessel towing another because the job “restricts the towing vessel and her tow in their ability to deviate from their course,” the Coast Guard rules say.

Lorenzo Palomares, a lawyer for the owner of Waterfront Construction, has noted that the unnamed tug captain has 12 years of experience working on Biscayne Bay. Palomares told the Herald that the Wood Chuck crew had indeed been keeping a lookout.

And actually saw the yacht club’s sailboat, which he said was part of a caravan of similar vessels traveling to Monument Island. But, that boat suddenly left the group and sailed into the path of the barge, Palomares said.
The tug captain had the caravan in sight and actually turned 10 degrees to ensure the tug and barge were clear of the group, but he did not see the sailboat separate from the other boats, Palomares said, stressing that tugboats pulling and pushing barges have very little time to react.

LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Every so often he tries to be funny. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid.

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Oct 31, 2025by: Curtis Hoff No Comments
Cruisers’ Net Weekly Newsletter – October 31, 2025
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Oct 30, 2025by: Curtis Hoff No Comments

Uncrewed Vessels Will Use AI To Interpret Nav Data – Loose Cannon

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Uncrewed Vessels Will Use AI To Interpret Nav Data

U.K. Researchers Teaching Control Systems How To Understand Sailing Directions

Oct 29

The autonomous ZeroUSVs Oceanus12 is designed to support extended maritime operations, allowing for deployments of up to 7,500 nautical miles, or approximately 60 days, without the need for external assistance.

The author is a regular contributor to Marine Industry News of the U.K., which published this story on October 16. It is reprinted here with permission.

By GEMMA HARRIS

A research project has been launched in Plymouth to teach autonomous vessels to read and act on official navigation data.

The eight-month initiative, led jointly by the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office in Taunton and Plymouth-based Marine AI, aims to develop AI that is capable of interpreting Admiralty sailing directions and radio navigation warnings.

The Admiralty is the British government agency historically responsible for its Navy. Now, it is also in charge of hydrography, charting, marine data and advice on maritime matters.

“This is the first time anyone has attempted to process Admiralty Sailing Directions and Radio Navigation Warnings in a way that an autonomous control system can act upon,” said Oliver Thompson, technical director at Marine AI. “By proving this capability on the water, we are closing one of the biggest gaps in (uncrewed vessel) autonomy and taking a major step toward safe, fully automated operations.”

Such a project represents a world first in applying Large Language Models (LLMs) to process maritime navigation information for autonomous control systems.

The maritime autonomy software firm, Marine AI, will retrain its baseline LLM to translate unstructured, text-based navigational data into formats usable by its GuardianAI autonomy software suite. The goal is to enable Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships to make safe, real-time operational decisions using the same authoritative information relied upon by professional mariners.

Currently, uncrewed vessels depend on humans to interpret navigation warnings and sailing guidance, much of which is distributed through legacy systems and written in natural nautical language. The project will address these challenges by using AI to convert this into structured data that can be integrated into autonomous decision-making systems.

In spring 2026, there is a planned on-water demonstration, when the ZeroUSVs Oceanus12 vessel, fitted with Marine AI’s GuardianAI suite, will navigate Plymouth’s waters using the newly developed capability. The trials will run alongside advanced simulation exercises and are expected to inform the International Hydrographic Organisation’s S-100 data framework—one that is underpinning the next generation of digital navigation standards.

Mark Casey, head of Research, Design and Innovation at the Hydrographic Office, said: “Working with Marine AI allows us to push the boundaries of how autonomous systems can use official hydrographic information. The outcomes will not only support the safety of lives at sea but also feed directly into the development of the International Hydrographic Office’s S-100 framework, ensuring that Hydrographic Office data continues to set the global benchmark for safe navigation in both crewed and uncrewed vessels.”

Plymouth, on the south coast of Southwest England, has become a national hub for autonomous maritime research, and this new project presents an opportunity to further strengthen its role as a testbed for uncrewed vessel technology.

Read more stories like this one in the Marine Industry News.

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Oct 29, 2025by: Curtis Hoff No Comments

Two Iconic Coral Specials Are Now ‘Functionionally Extinct’ Off Florida – Loose Cannon

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Two Iconic Coral Specials Are Now ‘Functionionally Extinct’ Off Florida

Authors Witness Reef’s Bleaching and Devastation

Oct 27

About the authors: Carly Kenkel is associate professor of Biological Sciences, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences; Jenna Dilworth is a Ph.D. candidate in Marine Sciences, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and Maya Gomez is a Ph.D. student in Marine Sciences, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

This story first appeared in The Conversation on October 23, 2025 and is reprinted here with permission.

By CARLY D. KENKEL, JENNA DILWORTH & MAYA GOMEZ

In early June 2023, the coral reefs in the lower Florida Keys and the Dry Tortugas were stunning. We were in diving gear, checking up on hundreds of corals we had transplanted as part of our experiments. The corals’ classic orange-brown colors showed they were thriving.

Just three weeks later, we got a call—a marine heat wave was building, and water temperatures on the reef were dangerously high. Our transplanted corals were bleaching under the heat stress, turning bone white. Some were already dead.

Two photos show staghorn coral before after bleaching of a few weeks. The live coral is a mustard color. The bleached corals are a ghostly bone white. — Staghorn corals in a lower Florida Keys transplant experiment that were healthy in June 2023 had bleached white in July. Erich Bartels, Joe Kuehl/Mote Marine Laboratory

That was the start of a global mass bleaching event. As ocean temperatures rose, rescuers scrambled to relocate surviving corals to land-based tanks, but the heat wave, extending over 2023 and 2024, was lethal.

In a study published Oct. 23, 2025, in the journal Science, we and colleagues from NOAA, the Shedd Aquarium and other institutions found that two of Florida’s most important and iconic reef-building coral species had become functionally extinct across Florida’s coral reef, meaning too few of them remain to serve their previous ecological role.

No Chance To Recover

In summer 2023, the average sea-surface temperature across Florida’s reef was above 87 degrees Fahrenheit (31 degrees Celsius) for weeks. We found that the accumulated heat stress on the corals was 2.2 to 4 times higher than it had ever been since modern satellite sea-surface temperature recordings began in the 1980s, a time when those two species—branching staghorn and elkhorn corals—were the dominant reef-builders in the region.

A map showing Florida Keys sea surface temperature more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degree Celsius) warmer than average — A sea-surface temperature map from mid-July 2023 shows the extraordinary heat around the Florida Keys. NOAA Coral Reef Watch

The temperatures were so high in the middle and lower Florida Keys that some corals died within days from acute heat shock.

Everywhere on the reef, corals were bleaching. That occurs when temperatures rise high enough that the coral expels its symbiotic algae, turning stark white. The corals rely on these algae for food, a solar-powered energy supply that allows them to build their massive calcium carbonate skeletons, which we know as coral reefs.

These reefs are valuable. They help protect coastal areas during storms, provide safety for young fish and provide habitat for thousands of species. They generate millions of dollars in tourism revenue in places like the Florida Keys. However, the symbiotic relationship between the coral animal and the algae that supports these incredible ecosystems can be disrupted when temperatures rise about 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit (1 to 2 degrees Celsius) above the normal summer maximum.

By the end of summer 2023, only three of the 200 corals we had transplanted in the Lower Keys to study how corals grow survived.

In the Dry Tortugas, corals’ bone-white skeletons were already being grown over by seaweed. That’s a warning sign of a potential phase shift, where reefs change from coral-dominated to macroalgae-dominated systems.

Our colleagues observed similar patterns across the Florida Keys: Acroporid corals – staghorn and elkhorn – suffered staggering levels of bleaching and death.

Of the more than 50,000 acroporid corals surveyed across nearly 400 individual reefs before and after the heat wave, 97.8 to 100 percent ultimately died. Those farther north and offshore in cooler water fared somewhat better.

But this pattern of bleaching extended to the rest of the Caribbean and the world, leading NOAA to declare 2023-2024 the fourth global bleaching event. This type of mass bleaching, in which stress and mortality occur almost simultaneously across locations around the world, points to a common environmental driver.

Ghost-white coral branches among darker ones with fish swimming above. — A bleached and dead staghorn coral thicket in the Dry Tortugas, already being overgrown by seaweed in September 2023. The corals had been healthy a few months earlier. Maya Gomez

In the summer of 2023, that environmental driver was clearly soaring water temperatures caused by climate change.

Functionally Extinct

Even before the 2023 marine heat wave, staghorn and elkhorn numbers had been dwindling, with punctuated declines accelerated by a diverse array of stressors – hurricane damage, loss of supporting herbivore species, disease and repeated bleaching.

The 2023-2024 event was effectively the final nail in the coffin: The data from our new study shows that these species are now functionally extinct on Florida’s coral reef.

Caribbean acroporids have not entirely disappeared in Florida, but those left are not enough to fulfill their ecological role. When populations become too small, they lose their capacity to rebound – in conservation biology this is known as the “extinction vortex.” With so few individuals, it becomes harder to find a mate, and even when one is found, it’s more likely to be a relative, which has negative genetic consequences.

Golden colored corals shaped like an elk's antlers — Live elkhorn coral, *Acropora palmata,* off Florida before the marine heat wave. NOAA Fisheries

A side view of bleached-white elkhorn coral — A bleached colony of elkhorn coral in Dry Tortugas National Park off Florida on Sept. 11, 2023. Shedd Aquarium/Ross Cunning

For an ecosystem-builder like coral, many individuals are required to build an effective reef. Even if the remaining corals were the healthiest and most thermally tolerant of the bunch – they did survive, after all – there are simply not enough of them left to recover on their own.

Can Corals Be Saved?

Florida’s acroporids have joined the ranks of the California condor – they cannot recover without help. But unlike the condor, there are still pockets of healthy corals scattered throughout their broader range that could be used to help restore areas with localized extinctions.

The surviving corals in Florida could be bred with other Caribbean populations to boost their numbers and increase genetic diversity, an approach known as assisted gene flow.

A diver with a camera and a box around a small coral branch. — Maya Gomez, one of the authors of this article and the study, takes photos of transplanted corals off Florida. Jenna Dilworth

Advancements in microfragmentation, a way to speed up coral propagation by cutting them into smaller pieces, and cryopreservation, which involves deep-freezing coral sperm to preserve their genetic diversity, have made it possible to mass produce, archive and exchange genetic diversity at a scale that would not have been possible just 10 years ago.

Restoration isn’t easy, though. From a policy perspective, coordinating international exchange of endangered species is complex. There is still disagreement about the capacity to scale up reef restoration to recover entire ecosystems. And the question remains: Even if we could succeed in restoring these reefs, would we be planting corals just in time for the next heat wave to knock them down again?

This is a real risk, because ocean temperatures are rising. There is broad consensus that the world must curb the carbon emissions contributing to increased ocean temperatures for restoration to succeed.

Climate change poses an existential threat to coral reefs, but these advancements, in concert with effective and timely action to curb greenhouse gas emissions, could give them a fighting chance.

LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Sometimes he tries to be funny. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid.

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Oct 28, 2025by: Curtis Hoff No Comments 26.0357,-80.11619999
New Mooring Field: Loggerhead Park & Mooring Field at AIWW MM 1070.6

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New mooring fields are always welcome, especially with the growing restrictions on anchoring. The Loggerhead Park Mooring field is located in Hollywood FL off the AIWW at mile marker 1070.6.
Cruisers Net Listing: https://cruisersnet.net/228196
Loggerhead Park Mooring Field Website: WestLakePark@Broward.org

The Loggerhead Park Mooring Field opened on Friday, October 10, 2025. The first mooring field in the Broward County Parks and Recreation system was developed to provide overnight stays for the owner/operator and crew/guests in vessels 40 feet or less in length. The mooring field is adjacent to the Intracoastal Waterway in the Hollywood North Beach area attached to a barrier island to allow access to local restaurants and entertainment. It’s coordinates are latitude: 26.035699751, longitude: -80.11610654.

The mooring field has 28 slips available to rent (22 spots in the North Cove and six in the South Cove), which provide fore-and-aft anchoring systems for each boat. Mooring slips will be assigned by staff based upon availability and size of vessel. Vessels check in and out between 9:30AM to 6PM. Check-in time 1PM or later on the day of arrival. Checkout time is no later than 11AM on the day of departure.

There is a $30/nightly fee and a facility permit is required. Maximum length of stay is 90 days followed by a minimum off-site stay of five days to be allowed back in for an additional 90 days (no more than 180 cumulative days in any rolling twelve-month period).

Office is onsite. Renters have use of laundry facilities, showers/ restrooms, pump-out station, freshwater service and picnic shelter.
For additional details about mooring rentals, call West Lake Park at 954-357-5282.
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Oct 28, 2025by: Curtis Hoff No Comments

Investor Balked at Saving Catalina, Company President Told Workers (Video) – Loose Cannon

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Investor Balked at Saving Catalina, Company President Told Workers (Video)

Nine Unfinished Boats; President Goes to Tartan

Oct 25

This is an unfinished Catalina sailboat from a happier times.

Catalina Yachts President Patrick Turner stood before a couple dozen employees, explaining to them that the company needed an infusion of capital to stay in business. Catalina’s new owner, Michael Reardon, had been wooing a potential investor who ultimately refused to commit, Turner said, before announcing that they were all being laid off.

“Michael, our owner, has done his part in getting someone involved, the investor.” Turner told workers at Catalina’s Largo, Florida, facility. “The investor was asking questions, and we’d keep answering, and he keeps asking more questions.”

Reardon was owner of Daedulus Composites, a boatbuilder in Edenton, North Carolina. He purchased the assets of Catalina and True North powercraft from Catalina’s corporate ownership in California (California Catalina) in May. In August, he bought Tartan Yachts and two other brands.

Soon after Turner closed down the Florida Catalina facility earlier this month, his LinkedIn page began listing him as president of Tartan Yachts, which is in Ohio.

Layoff Video, October 14, 2025

On September 18, California Catalina filed a lawsuit against Reardon for non-payment of rent for the Florida Catalina factory and, by default, the $1 million promised for purchase of company assets. The suit listed the following boats as collateral; nine of the 11 are in various stages of construction, some near completion.

Catalina Yachts Owner Evicted from Factory

Oct 24

Read full story

As reported earlier, Florida Catalina employees were working without pay for the last five weeks before the shutdown. As it happens, the company was also “out of trust” with its suppliers, too. No more materials or gear on credit. Catalina’s parts people began sourcing supplies from Amazon in an effort to finish boats.

Unlike other builders who employ a series of “draws,” collecting a percentage of the purchase price at specified construction milestones, Catalina Florida took a single down payment with the balance due at delivery. For example, a C-446 goes out the door for more than $600,000, so revenue generated at delivery of even a single boat is substantial.

Meanwhile, the workforce (many of them who were making just $16 an hour) are hoping someone reopens the factory so Sail Annapolis and others can get their boats.

Michael Reardon has lost control of the building, having been evicted as a consequence of California Catalina’s lawsuit against him. So, some employees now hope that the people behind California Catalina—the family of the late Frank Butler—will get the resin flowing again and push those nine boats out the door.

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Oct 28, 2025by: Curtis Hoff No Comments

ALREADY – Janice Anne Wheeler, Sparring With Mother Nature

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Another week of SPARRING— have you enjoyed yours? I hope it’s all worthwhile, because you loyal readers make my little ‘stack worthwhile….that much I know. Thank you. ~J

If you’ve just joined our engaging little community, please read SPARS & SPARRING, my introductory piece.…. ~J

ALREADY

STEADFAST Turns 91 and Poseidon’s Looking Out For Her

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