May 4, 2018 — The Coast Guard cutter Key Largo was anchored out past Ten Pound Island on Thursday, near the section of Gloucester’s Outer Harbor known as the Pancake Ground.
But for the purposes of Thursday’s mission, the Key Largo wasn’t the Key Largo and it wasn’t a Coast Guard cutter. On this day, as part of an expansive hazardous materials response drill, the Key Largo played the starring role of a rusting old fishing vessel that had hauled up a load of World War II ordinance — talk about bycatch — along with its fish.
The replicated hazmat incident, which closely mirrored a true event that occurred in New Bedford in 2010, was the springboard to a coordinated marine response involving specially trained first responders, harbormaster personnel and about a dozen vessels from the Coast Guard, Gloucester and several other nearby coastal communities such as Marblehead, Beverly, Newburyport and Salisbury.
The drill, organized by the state Department of Fire Services’ Hazardous Material Response Program, helped team members practice their response to an offshore incident possibly involving hazardous materials. It was an exercise designed to test established response protocols, as well as the levels of cooperation among the array of participating agencies.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Times