Katmai sinking: Owners wanted out of fishing

After a lifetime running fishing fleets off Alaska and Russia, Lloyd Cannon saw the Katmai as one last opportunity to wrest profits from the sea.

The family of the aging Edmonds fisherman held a controlling interest in the 93-foot cod vessel.

"We were closing everything down and on the verge of being out of the fishing business and the boat business," said Cannon, in testimony Wednesday to a Marine Board of Investigation seeking to understand why the Katmai sank in October, killing seven of 11 crew members.

Cannon is a prominent figure in the North Pacific seafood industry, and this was the first time he'd spoken publicly about the Katmai. The vessel sank as the skipper, Henry Blake, tried to push through a perilous island passage in a huge storm that had prompted other vessels to seek the lee of islands, according to testimony Wednesday.

The 78-year-old Cannon, who helped found All Alaskan Seafoods, estimated he had been involved in some 50 vessels through the course of his fishing career.

Cannon, in a telephone interview, said that he remained active in the management of the Katmai, helping to determine where it would fish and how it would be outfitted, and writing checks to bankroll expenses.

At the Wednesday hearing, Coast Guard officials also heard testimony from a former crewman, Isaac Vigil, who said that a weak area of the vessel was improperly repaired by trying to weld aluminum to steel, and that a crack below that patch leaked water into the fish factory.

Investigators also are trying to find out why one of the vessel's life rafts might not have inflated. The life raft was found missing a carbon-dioxide cartridge that is vital to inflation.

Survivors and the families of those who died are pressing claims under maritime law, but it is still unclear whether $5 million in insurance money will be made available to help settle the claims. It depends on whether the insurers are satisfied that all the representations made by Katmai Fisheries Inc. about the vessel were accurate, and all operating restrictions were followed.

"The matter is under investigation. But the issues and the outcome of the investigation is not certain," said Brewster Jamieson, an attorney representing insurers.

In the meantime, some survivors have reached settlements with funds provided by the Katmai's owners, according to George Knowles, a maritime attorney who represents a survivor who has not settled.

Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com