Aleutian Storm salvage put on hold until June as officials commit to removing all Sonoma Coast wreckage at a later date

Salvage operations involving wreckage from the Aleutian Storm have been put on hold because of changing tides and shifting sands that have halted forward progress, officials said.

About three-fourths of the fishing vessel’s remnants have been removed from South Salmon Creek Beach, where the 58-foot boat grounded and was torn apart by recent storms, according to Max Delaney, emergency response coordinator for the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.

But two large pieces of the hull, parts of the bow and part of the keel, remain buried in sand that, due to powerful winter swells, is replaced as quickly as salvage crews can dig it out, Delaney said.

"That beach is incredibly active in terms of the sand transfers,“ he said. ”They dig it out one day, and it’s back the next.“

On top of that, the extremely low “minus tides” that provided longer windows to work on the grounded vessel in the first weeks after it came ashore have passed. Salvage crews plan to wait for another cycle of minus tides, likely in June, before resuming, sanctuary personnel said.

The arrival of nesting season for snowy plovers, the tiny endangered seabirds, also influenced the decision to suspend salvage work, Delaney said.

Suspending the salvage work means California State Parks can reopen parking lots used to accommodate trailers and heavy equipment, with the Bodega Dune lot reopening immediately, said Bill Maslach, California State Parks Sonoma-Mendocino District superintendent.

The South Salmon Creek Beach parking area off Bean Avenue likely will remain closed through at least Monday, when equipment will be hauled out, he said.

The Aleutian Storm got into trouble late the night of Feb. 9 when its captain, commercial fisherman Chris Fox, of Mill Valley, landed on a sandbar in shallow water off the Sonoma Coast State Beach.

Waves quickly drove it ashore, where it was destroyed after attempts to refloat it over several days failed.

Public officials and the salvage crews, paid for by Fox’s insurance, are committed to resuming the salvage when conditions improve, Delaney said. They are calling the suspension of activities now and “operational pause.”

In the meantime, they were able to remove several intact fuel tanks that held only about 60 gallons of diesel fuel, Delaney said. Crews earlier recovered about 137 gallons of diesel, so a fair amount likely leaked into the marine sanctuary waters.

Fox initially estimated perhaps 1,500 gallons of fuel remained on board when the Aleutian Storm grounded, though it was an imprecise estimate. Some fuel was spent during the refloating efforts, but “the rest has probably leaked out,” Delaney said.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan (she/her) at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @MaryCallahanB.