Tugboat Pushes Stuck Shrimp Boat Closer To Sea

Ormond Beach, FL - Expect another attempt soon to free a stuck shrimping vessel after a tow crew managed to move the 77-foot-long, 150-ton boat closer to deep water today (October 30th). The United States Coast Guard says the next attempt to move the A.M.G. will likely be the next high tide, scheduled to come around 12:30 p.m. on Halloween. USCG regulations prevent the tow crew from trying to free the boat when the sun is down. The "Rio Bravo" pulled up alongside the A.M.G. late this morning during high tide and managed to nudge the stuck boat further away from the breakwater point, snapping at least one tow cable in the process.

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It's moving slowly... but the stuck shrimp boat near the Cardinal Drive beach approach in Ormond Beach is slowly making its way out to sea. Details coming to NewsDaytonaBeach.com.

A post shared by WNDB News (@newsdaytonabeach) on Oct 30, 2018 at 9:38am PDT

The bottom of the vessel kept hitting sandbars on its way out to sea today, according to USCG officials, and the hope is that the next high tide will lift the boat high enough to free itself from those sandbars with a little help from the tugboat. A crowd gathered around the grounded vessel to see the tow boat's attempts to move the A.M.G offshore two weeks after it ran aground near the Cardinal Drive beach approach, close to the site of a historical shipwreck dating back to the late 1890's. Volusia County Beach Safety personnel ordered some of those onlookers to back away during the attempt for safety reasons.

.@VolusiaBeach personnel warning crowd to move back as stuck shrimp boat starts coming loose. pic.twitter.com/GtnQs3DfwE

— News Daytona Beach (@NewsDaytonaBch) October 30, 2018

Prior to the tow boat's attempt, around 5,000 pounds of shrimp were taken off the boat and hauled away in refrigerated trucks. USCG approved a salvage plan to remove the boat last week after a failed attempt by the crew to remove it without the tugboat's help.