About 0048 Alaska Standard Time on February 16, 2015, the commercial fishing vessel Savannah Ray grounded on the lee shore of Long Island, Alaska, while traveling in rough seas from fishing grounds off Ugak Island in the Gulf of Alaska to the vessel's home port at St. Paul Harbor, Kodiak Island, Alaska. The vessel then washed up on the beach about 5 miles from St. Paul Harbor. The four crewmembers were rescued from the vessel by a helicopter from US Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak. The insured value of the Savannah Ray was $800,000, and the vessel was deemed a constructive total loss as a result of the grounding.

​​The probable cause of the grounding of the Savannah Ray was the vessel straying off course and entering shallow water because the captain fell asleep while navigating due to fatigue. Contributing to the grounding was the captain’s failure to use all of the vessel’s available alerting and navigation alarms.

​​Crew knowledge of alerting and navigation alarms

The vessel was equipped with a watch alarm that, if used properly, would likely have prevented this accident. Best practices for commercial fishing operations include vessel owners/operators ensuring that their crews have sufficient knowledge of all onboard alerting and navigation alarms.

Written procedures for alerting and navigation alarms

The owner/operator of the vessel did not have any written guidance that required the crew to use all available onboard alerting and navigation alarms. Owners/operators can promote the proper use of alerting and navigation alarms by providing their crews with written procedures for this equipment.​