Rockfish Inc v. Unidentified Wrecked and Abandoned Vessel

Opinion

1 THE HONORABLE JAMES L. ROBART

7 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 8 AT SEATTLE

9 ROCKFISH, INC., a Washington Corporation, IN ADMIRALTY

10 Plaintiff, CASE NO.: 22-cv-1659-JLR

11 [PROPOSED] ORDER v. GRANTING PLAINTIFF’S 12 MOTION TO EXTEND UNIDENTIFIED WRECKED AND EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO 13 ABANDONED VESSEL, her engines, boilers, SALVAGE VESSEL AND apparel, tackle, equipment, appurtenances and INJUNCTION AGAINST 14 cargo, in rem, COMPETING SALVAGE

OPERATIONS 15 Defendant. 16

This matter having come before the Court on Plaintiff’s Motion to Extend Exclusive 17

Right to Salvage Vessel and Injunction Against Competing Salvage Operations, and the Court 18

having considered the motion and being fully advised, now, therefore, it is hereby: 19

20 ORDERED that plaintiff’s motion is GRANTED; and

21 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiff is hereby granted the exclusive right to

salvage the Defendant Unidentified Wrecked and Abandoned Vessel (the “Vessel”). 22

Unless otherwise authorized by the Court, all other salvors are enjoined from engaging in salvage 23

operations within the polygon bounded by the following coordinates (WGS 84 datum): 24

25 • NW Corner of polygon: 47.8781 latitude -125.2987 longitude

26 • NE Corner of polygon: 47.8229 latitude -125.1179 longitude ] e SE Corner of polygon: 47.7398 latitude -125.1100 longitude 2 e SW Corner of polygon: 47.7949 latitude -125.2912 longitude 3 A graphic depiction of this polygon follows: 4 5 ; i ERS coset o a xy Boundary of the US . ew 6 Contiguous Zone Washingt a ee > State | fo anh. □ %y x os” ‘| □□ ES 1 □□ al) | Bs *\ @ 10 a Washington —> “sl State 3 mile limit □□ \ Boundary of the US 13 J hq ‘ x Territorial Sea Boundary of the |, Boundary of the 14 Rockfish, Inc p Olympic Coast Exclusi \ National Marine . 13 xclusion area Sy « Sanctuary 16

17 Unless extended by the Court, Plaintiffs exclusive right to salvage the Vessel and the 18 above-described injunction against competing salvage operations shall lapse on April 21, 2025. 19 Plaintiff is permitted to seek extension of its exclusive salvage right and the injunction by 0 motion. In order to obtain such extension, Plaintiff must demonstrate its salvage efforts will be 1 undertaken with due diligence, are ongoing, and clothed with some prospect of success, consistent with the principles set forth in Moyer v. Wrecked & Abandoned Vessel, known as 3 Andrea Doria, 836 F. Supp. 1099, 1106 (D.N.J. 1993). 24|| 5 \\ %6 \\

LAW OFFICES OF [PROPOSED] ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR a proressIGOLL BLACK & FEIG EXTENSION OF EXCLUSIVE SALVAGE RIGHTS & INJUNCTION 1328 FOURTH AVENUE, SUITE 1650

1 DATED this 21st day of December, 2023. 2 A 3 4 _______________________________________ UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT JUDGE 5 6 Presented by: 7 NICOLL BLACK & FEIG PLLC 8 /s/ Jeremy B. Jones________________ 9 Jeremy B. Jones, WSBA No. 44138 Attorneys for Plaintiff 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26