O’ahu residents Ian Buscher and Tom Zelko and a pet dog were stranded at sea in their disabled boat for nearly four days before they were rescued Oct. 4 more than 50 miles northeast of Kaua’i. Buscher, 33, and Zelko,
O’ahu residents Ian Buscher and Tom Zelko and a pet dog were stranded at sea in
their disabled boat for nearly four days before they were rescued Oct. 4 more
than 50 miles northeast of Kaua’i.
Buscher, 33, and Zelko, 40, expecting
the worst, rationed their food. Finally they were plucked from the sea by a
Marine Corps helicopter, one of the military and civilian aircraft used in a
search that covered thousands of miles and cost up to $1 million.
Zelko
wanted to resume his private life but was confronted by a situation that left
him in disbelief and angered at least one friend: The taking of his 14-foot
Boston Whaler by a Kapa’a fisherman after the rescue.
The fisherman, Gary
Oshita, found the abandoned boat nearly eight miles off Kaua’i on Oct. 7 and
recovered it as his own under federal maritime salvaging laws.
Both Oshita
and Zelko declined to comment on the matter. But one of Zelko’s friends on
Kaua’i, who requested anonymity, said the seizure amounted to “legalized
piracy.”
Other boat owners that use Hawaiian waters could find themselves
in the same quandary if they leave their boats after a rescue or an accident,
the man warned.
But O’ahu attorney Bryan Ho, a specialist in federal
maritime law, said that isn’t true.
“Just because you find property (at
sea), it doesn’t give you ownership, particularly when the owner comes back
and says, ‘I want my property back,'” Ho said.
The fisherman didn’t have
the right to take ownership of the boat and was only entitled to a salvage
lien or a money award for returning the boat to shore, according to Ho.
The
amount of the award to the fisherman, Ho said, would be based on these
conditions and others:
l The value of the ship after it has been
salvaged.
l The nature and degree of danger the fisherman faced in saving
the property.
l The expense and time he took to save the boat.
l The
amount of harm to the environment that was prevented or mitigated because the
boat was brought to shore safely.
If the owner can’t afford to pay the
salvage lien, Ho said, the fisherman can foreclose on the vessel and enforce
the salvage lien.
“The only way the fisherman can gain ownership of the
boat is if the owner (Zelko) gave the boat to him, or if the fisherman buys it
through a court-sanctioned sale,” Ho said.
Under federal maritime law, the
Coast Guard and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ boating
and ocean recreation division would have jurisdiction in the matter.
The
Coast Guard has not gotten involved because there has been no evidence of
criminal intent, said Lt. Greg Fondran, spokesman for the Coast Guard on
O’ahu.
The jurisdiction of the Coast Guard extends 24 miles from the coasts
of the United States, including Hawaii. The Coast Guard also has jurisdiction
over all U.S. vessels regardless of their location.
James Schoocraft, a
boating staff officer with the DLNR, said his division also is looking into the
matter of Zelko’s boat. The division registers boats for use by operators in
Hawai’i.
The sea ordeal for the two men and the dog, a black Labrador,
began at 8 a.m. Oct. 1, when they left Kailua in their boat bound for Molokai
for a surfing trip.
The weather was clear and the water was calm. After
reaching Moloka’i at 10 a.m., Buscher, using a cellular phone, called his wife
to say they had reached the island safely and would be back in Kailua by
noon.
Things didn’t happen as planned.
The boat’s outboard engine
overheated, so the sailors shut it down. By the time the engine cooled, fog had
rolled in. That, combined with fumes from the Kilauea volcano on the Big
Island, reduced visibility to zero.
The mariners pointed the boat northward
to O’ahu and motored it along in a zigzag pattern until fuel ran low without
sighting land. Then they shut down the engine to save fuel in case of an
emergency.
After they were reported overdue Oct. 1, the Coast Guard was
notified and, with the help of the Navy, Civil Air Patrol and civilian
aircraft, combed the ocean that afternoon without success.
Zelko said he
and his companion never saw the search aircraft, but they did see a Matson
container ship. They motored toward it, but their fuel ran out.
Realizing
they might be out at sea for a while, they made lures and a fishing spear. A
surfboard was used as a mast, and orange towels were tied to it to help move
the immobilized boat.
The men also prepared for a rescue, making a smoke
bomb to hail search planes if they came.
They said they never gave up their
belief they would be saved but were prepared to be out in the water for 10 to
15 days.
Had they not been spotted, they would have floated past the
Hawaiian Islands and ended up in dangerous shipping lanes.
At 3 p.m. Oct.
4, a crew aboard a Navy P-3 aircraft that was about to end its search for the
day spotted the boat with the two men and the dog about 60 miles off Kahuku on
O’ahu.
A Navy helicopter from Marine Corps Base Hawai’i was sent to the
scene, picked up the threesome and brought them back to the Marine base at
Kaneohe on O’ahu.
The men were examined at Castle Medical Center on O’ahu
and were released. The dog also was okay.
Staff writer Lester Chang
can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and lchang@pulitzer.net
