Coast Guard hires Ketchikan dive company to handle fuel on boat aground in Raymond Cove

The U.S. Coast Guard has hired a Ketchikan dive company to deal with fuel and oil aboard the M/V Sultan, a vessel aground in Raymond Cove in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough.

Alaska C-Dive LLC is to "mitigate the harmful effects from an unknown amount of fuel and oil onboard," according to the federal contract record. The record doesn't say whether any has spilled.

The Coast Guard skipped competitive bidding, citing urgency, and committed $35,000 on Wednesday. The company is paid by the hour plus materials, so the final cost could be higher. The work started Oct. 14, two weeks before the order was signed, and can run through Dec. 13.

The record doesn't say what kind of boat the Sultan is, when or how it went aground, who owns it or who will ultimately pay.

There may be an earlier chapter. On Oct. 5, the Coast Guard asked NOAA to help find a fishing vessel named Sultan that went adrift in Clarence Strait near Ketchikan. It had been under tow when the towing boat's propeller fouled, and a Coast Guard towline attached afterward broke, leaving its location unknown. The records don't say whether it's the same boat.

Neither the Coast Guard's district news page nor the state Department of Environmental Conservation's spill summaries mention the Sultan.