EXTRA...

Speed limits help whales, CG calls off search

Coast Guard suspends search for Lady Luck, two presumed dead

BOSTON - The Coast Guard suspended the search at 5:34 p.m. today for the two crewmen of Lady Luck, a Newburyport, Mass. based fishing vessel that has been missing since about early Thursday morning.

The crew of the 52-foot commercial fishing vessel is identified as Sean Cone, 24, of North Andover, Mass. and Dan Miller, 21, of North Hampton N.H.   Leave a comment
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Shipping speed limit would protect whales
Right whales migrate pass cape now through July

NEW BEDFORD — At the New Bedford Whaling Museum, a team is reconstructing the 49-foot skeleton of a pregnant female right whale struck and killed by a ship off the Virginia coast in November of 2004. The skeleton will hang in the museum's main gallery, a symbol of the whaling city's history and the right whale's ongoing struggle for survival.

Today, the right whale population has dwindled to about 300 in the Northern Hemisphere. Like the museum's specimen, more than half of all right whale deaths caused by humans are believed to result from collisions with ships.  Now the National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing a speed limit along areas of the Atlantic coast to reduce the number of ships striking right whales, which have been listed as an endangered species since 1970.  The proposal calls for a mandatory speed limit of 10-knots — about 11.5 mph — for vessels 65 feet or longer in areas where whales are active during certain times of year. The restrictions would not apply to vessels operated by federal agencies, such as Coast Guard, Navy and research vessels...

In deciding on the 10-knot limit, the fisheries service analyzed records of collisions between ships and whales near Cape Cod and calving areas off the coast of the southeastern United States.,, Read the rest of this Standard-Times story here.   Leave a comment
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3 die in plane crash at New Bedford Airport
Corporate aircraft goes down near city airport

NEW BEDFORD — A single-engine airplane bound for New Bedford Regional Airport from Boston in dense fog and rain crashed in the North Dartmouth woods last night, killing three passengers.  "We have three confirmed dead at this time," said Richard Bunker, an investigator with the Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission. "We'll be doing the investigation tomorrow morning."

A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said the plane was a Socata single-engine turbo aircraft owned by PK Leasing LLC in Allentown, Pa. The Morning Call newspaper in Allentown, reported last night that the plane was registered to Peter Karoly, a prominent attorney who once owned a minor-league baseball team in the area. Mr. Karoly was a licensed pilot... Read the rest of this Standard-Times story here.
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Attleboro man linked to Harwich robberies

NORTON - Police recovered more than $20,000 worth of jewelry and electronics from an Attleboro apartment and are charging a suspect they say is linked to over a dozen housebreaks on Cape Cod, at least three in Norton and a jewelry heist in Vermont.

Nicholas Blagojevic, 27, of 121 County St., Attleboro, faces charges of breaking and entering and larceny in three Norton housebreaks and remains under investigation for other burglaries in Norton, Attleboro, North Attleboro and on Cape Cod, state and local police say... Trooper John Mawn, a detective with the Cape Cod Drug Task Force, and Harwich Detective Robert Brackett said Blagojevic is a suspect in 12 housebreaks in Harwich but has not yet been charged... Read the rest of this Sun Chronicle story here.