Marine Salvage: Out-of-the-box thinking to preserve Alaska's environment.

• Author: Simonelli, Isaac Stone
• Position: ENVIRONMENTAL

Despite what many may think, the Alaska marine salvage industry's primary goal--outside of ensuring the safety of people--is to protect the environment. Salvaging actual cargo is a much lower priority than safeguarding Alaska's many sensitive and important marine ecosystems.

Though salvors might not prioritize recovering assets, the maritime community at large, and particularly vessel owners, operators, and their underwriters, recognize the value of highly-trained, versatile professionals who protect their interests. This recognition has led to open communication between groups through organizations such as the International Maritime Organization, the International Salvage Union (ISU), and American Salvage Association.

"The most important thing salvages do that is probably misunderstood by the public is that we keep millions of gallons of pollutants out of the sea, out of the ocean, every year," says Dan Magone, operations manager for Resolve Marine Services. Magone was previously the owner of the renowned marine salvage business Magone Marine, which operated in Western Alaska for more than forty years until he sold it in 2013. "The [government] agencies don't really care about the owner or the owner's values involved or the underwriter's values involved. They're out representing the state and the people in terms of how might this incident damage the environment and cause harm to the waters and the state."

Prevention and Response

However, Alaska's sprawling, remote coastline and fierce weather create a challenging landscape for salvors doing their best to protect the environment.

Regulations in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which streamlined and strengthened the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to prevent and respond to catastrophic oil spills, are particularly problematic for vessels moving through the Aleutian Islands, which are distant from the infrastructure necessary for compliance if a ship runs aground, Resolve Marine Services Alaskan Region Director Todd Duke says. Due to this, ships must take additional precautions, such as remaining fifty or more miles offshore.

"That way, if they have a mechanical difficulty or casualty, there would be time to get a vessel out there," Duke says.

Though Resolve Marine specializes in salvage and wreck removals, the company also provides emergency response measures, tracking thousands of boats to ensure that they don't need to take a plunge and put their other skill sets to work. In fact, a lot of what Resolve Marine does is attempt to prevent incidents from occurring, or mitigating risk.

"We monitor the traffic moving through there [the Aleutians] using AIS technology, make sure they are complying with routing measures and everything," Duke says. "And then, if we see an anomaly drifting, we'll...