A commercial crab boat captain was cited by an Oregon State Police (OSP) Fish & Wildlife Division trooper for Water Pollution in the First Degree related to an investigation into last week’s dumping of an estimated 5,000 pounds of rotten, skinned mink carcasses into the water at the Port of Brookings in Curry County. During the night of April 1 and early morning hours of April 2, boat captain CHARLES CASE, age 48, from Brookings, and the crew of “Ann Me”, a commercial crab boat, allegedly dumped the mink carcasses into the port waters. During the morning of April 2, the Port Manager contacted law enforcement and the Department of Environmental Quality to investigate and determine who was responsible. That morning, Port of Brookings workers began coordinating the removal of the rotten mink carcasses from the port waters. During the weekend, port workers had retrieved approximately 3,000 pounds of bloated, floating carcasses out of the water as the workers were forced to wear protective clothing and masks lined with “Vicks” vapor rub to combat the smell. Clean up is continuing as the mink continue to float to the surface. On April 5, an OSP Fish & Wildlife trooper assigned to the investigation contacted CASE and the boat’s crew for interviews. Based on the investigation, CASE was cited to appear in Curry County Circuit Court for one count of Water Pollution in the First Degree, a class B felony.
