"For two weeks, we helplessly watched as a huge snapping turtle struggled to free itself from some fishing line in Grenadier Pond in High Park. Rescue finally came, but not from where we expected.

When we first saw the beast actively paddling and bobbing at the surface but not getting anywhere, we got help from a Park Watch volunteer. He left elaborate telephone messages for both the park administration and the humane society. Since it was a weekend, no help came.

On the first weekday, park staff showed up to verify the turtle's plight. They were sympathetic but not trained to deal with wild animals. It was a job for the humane society.

In the park's boat, the society's officer approached the turtle, which immediately dove to the safety of the muddy bottom. The officer stirred up the surroundings trying to release whatever was holding the turtle, but the turtle didn't come up again until all the commotion was over.

For the next two weeks, the turtle played hide-and-seek as we kept finding it struggling on warm sunny days, although the park staff and humane society thought it had gotten away.

Finally, one day we found a huge dredging barge, with crane, floating almost over the spot where the turtle was prisoner. Surely this would put an end to the snapper's tortured existence. As a last-ditch effort, we asked the workmen to keep an eye out for the turtle. Half-heartedly, we returned a couple of days later to ask the workmen if they had seen the turtle. Not only had they seen it, they had released it."

March 1996

During a "routine" hull survey of the "Algobay", the diver found the lower pintle had dropped. The diver cut off the lower cover plate and the pintle nut cover plates. A special bracket was fabricated to jack the pintle up and a crane was used to tighten the nut. The diver then welded the nut in place and the ship was allowed to proceed without drydocking.