The Light Ice-breaker and Medium Endurance Cutter, "Storis," long a familiar sight plying the seas of Alaska, is on its way to Mexico to be cut up for scrap metal after a lifetime of distinguished service, but fans of the historic ship still hope to get their way, but that clock is rapidly ticking.

Fans, led by maritime historian Jon Ottman, are making one last ditch effort to halt the export of the 230-foot cutter to Mexico to be broken up at a scrapyard. It was pointed out that all of the PCBs used aboard the vessel may not have been acccounted for and may mean the vessel contains too much hazardous material to allow it to be exported under the Federal Toxic Substances Control Act.

Ottman reported that while some of the hazardous PCBs were removed from the ship, the ship may still contain PCBs in the paint,gaskets, insulation as well as other locations on the ship. PCBs were used extensively in paints, and electrical systems in the U.S. until 1979 when they were linked with cancer and environmental toxicity and their use was discontinued.

The group attempting to save the vessel from export and the scrap heap have contacted Alaska’s Senator Begich in an effort to halt the vessel’s trek to its ultimate destruction. In turn, Begich is contacting the EPA as well as the Mexican government to inform them of the vessel’s towing to Mexico and the possible hazards aboard the ship. The group hopes that the Mexican government will turn the vessel away and bar it from making landfall in their country.

The “Storis,” who had her beginnings as an Ice Patrol vessel in the North Atlantic during World War II, before moving its operations to Alaska, was sold to the owners of San Diego-based U.S. Metals Recovery, a foreign LLC, at auction this summer. It sold for $71,100, or approximately $1,000 for every year of its 71-year life. By Friday, October 25th, the ship was taken under tow and pointed towards Mexico.

The Alaska Delegation has worked since the Storis’s decommissioning in 2007 to avoid the vessel’s destruction and instead worked dilligently to make the famous Alaskan sea-going landmark a museum in Juneau. But, by early June, 2013, the General Services Administration placed the “Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast” onto the auction block as a repairable ship. The vessel was soon acquired by owners of U.S. Metals, John Bryan and Mark Juisich.

Pat Neal of Pacific Tug Boat Services told ANN that the tug “A.N. Tillett” currently has the “Storis” under tow headed to Ensenada. The vessels are due to arrive in that port shortly after 6pm this evening.