TAMPA - The U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies were waiting for high tide late Thursday night to try to free a barge that ran aground near Egmont Key.

The Coast Guard was to place a similar-size barge next to the 441-foot vessel that ran aground, Petty Officer Robert Simpson said Thursday evening.

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The plan was to lighten the beached barge by transferring fuel to the second barge. Tugboats would then try to nudge the barge free, Simpson said.

The tug Yankee was transporting the barge Wednesday from Houston to Tampa when it ran onto a sandbar, the Coast Guard said in a news release.