Saving Seafood

Safety

Fishing partnership hosting safety programs

May 6, 2015 — Fishing Partnership Support Services is hosting two safety programs for commercial fishermen in Gloucester.

A safety and survival training program is being held today at the Gloucester Coast Guard Station, 17 Harbor Loop, running through 3:30 p.m.. It will be followed on Friday by drill conductor training at the same location, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“We are very grateful to the Coast Guard for once again providing their facilities and full support,” said J.J. Bartlett, who serves as president of Fishing Partnership Support Services.

A team of experienced marine safety instructors, all certified by the U.S. Coast Guard, will lead the multi-part programs, both of which are being offered to fishermen at no cost.

Ed Dennehy, a retired Coast Guard captain and director of safety training for Fishing Partnership Support Services, noted that any and every emergency at sea is a potential threat to life and limb.

“Through hands-on training, we demonstrate the best ways to deal with all kinds of emergencies,” he said. “This knowledge can save a fisherman’s life or enable that fisherman to save the life of a fellow crew member.”

Topics to be covered during today’s safety and survival training include on-board firefighting, man-overboard procedures, flooding and pump operations, flares and emergency positioning devices, survival suits, life raft equipment, helicopter hoist and rescue procedures, and first aid.

According to Dennehy, it is not unusual for fishermen to attend safety and survival training annually to keep their skills sharp.

“In fact, we encourage yearly attendance,” he said. “There’s always a new wrinkle to discover in the subject of safety, and frequently reviewing procedures refreshes your skills.”

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times

Notification of New Requirements for Commercial Fishing Vessels

May 6, 2015 — The following was released by the U.S. Coast Guard:

The purpose of this Bulletin is to remind the commercial fishing industry about safety and equipment requirements established by the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010 and the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2012 as well as other applicable laws. These new requirements are scheduled to go into effect by the date(s) set forth under the law.

Mandatory Dockside Safety Examinations: Both Acts mentioned above directed that both State-registered and Federally-documented vessels that meet the following criteria, receive a safety examination no later than October 15, 2015, the date this requirement is scheduled to take effect. The criteria includes: operating beyond 3 nautical miles of the baseline of the U.S. territorial sea or the coastline of the Great Lakes and operating anywhere with more than 16 individuals on board (either inside 3 miles of the baseline or beyond 3 miles of the baseline). These vessels will need to complete this dockside safety examination at least once every 5 years, however, some vessels, depending on their operation or areas of service, may be subject to a more frequent examination schedule.

If you have had your vessel examined recently, the safety decal will remain valid until its expiration and you will be considered in complaince. If you do not have a valid safety decal after October 15, 2015, you could be subject to a civil penalty or operational controls that may affect your ability to fish. To help alleviate last minute exam scheduling backlogs, do not wait until the last minute to request an examination.

Survival Craft: The Acts also deleted the words “lifeboats or liferafts,” and replaced them with, “a survival craft that ensures that no part of an individual is immersed in water…” This means that all commercial fishing industry vessels operating beyond 3 nautical miles of the base line or the coastline of the Great Lakes will be required to carry a survival craft that keeps you out of the water (i.e., a lifeboat, inflatable liferaft, or inflatable buoyant apparatus) in the event of an abandon ship need. Current life floats and buoyant apparatus are not designed to keep an individual out of the water when used in an emergency. This requirement for a survival craft, such as a lifeboat, inflatable liferaft, or inflatable buoyant apparatus that keeps one out of the water, is scheduled to go into effect on February 16, 2016.

AIS: Effective March 2, 2016 all comercial vessels including fishing vessels over 65 feet will be required to carry either a Class A or Class B Automatic Indentification System (AIS). The AIS is a shipboard broadcast system that acts like a transponder, operating in the VHF maritime band. Picture a shipboard radar or an electronic chart display that includes a symbol for every significant ship within radio range, each as desired with a velocity vector (indicating speed and heading). Each ship “symbol” can reflect the actual size of the ship, with position to GPS or differential GPS accuracy. By “clicking” on a ship symbol, you can learn the ship name, course and speed, classification, call sign, registration number, MMSI, and other information.

Questions regarding these requirements should be forwarded to the First District Office at 617-223-8315 or to your local Sector Vessel Examiner. The examiners and other information can be found on the web site, www.fishsafe.info. Click on local examiners on the left side drop down menu.

View the announcement here

 

New Bedford, Mass. fishermen describe dramatic rescue in frigid harbor

April 29, 2015 — Two fishermen — the first to assist a man who fell in the water off State Pier on Tuesday — said “the real hero” in the rescue were the life rings installed along the city’s waterfront after the deaths of two fishermen in 2008.

“The hero was Kenny Thuestad and the life rings,” said Kevin Perry, 54, who along with Christoper Bird, 52, a retired fisherman, assisted a 64-year-old New Bedford man, who fell into the water.

They explained that the City of New Bedford installed the life rings all around the waterfront following the drowning deaths of two fishermen, Robert Glover and Thuestad. They said Thuestad jumped into the water and died in an effort to save Glover.

 

Read the full story and watch the video from the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Coast Guard comes to the aid of ailing crew member aboard fishing boat off New Jersey coast

April 29, 2015 — The Coast Guard came to the aid of man who became ill while working aboard a fishing boat off the coast of southern New Jersey.\

Watch standers at Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay received a call from the 45-foot fishing boat Vengeance shortly before 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, reporting that a crew member was experiencing seizure-like symptoms. At the time, the boat was about 37 miles east of Manasquan Inlet.

 

Read the full story from the Associated Press here

 

In Massachusetts, Station Gloucester team tows fishing crew to safety

April 21, 2015 — The crew of a fishing boat made an unexpected trip to Gloucester over the weekend.

U.S. Coast Guard teams from Station Gloucester and the cutter Legare, based in Portsmouth, Va., responded to the Angela Michelle, a 61-foot trawler fishing vessel around 115 miles east of Gloucester, after the crew reported the vessel’s anchor became wrapped around the ship’s propeller and rudder, according to an official Coast Guard statement.

The four-person fishing crew was still in Gloucester around noon on Monday, according to Roff Ruddell, Coast Guard public affairs specialist.

“I don’t know if they’ve actually unwrapped their line yet,” he said.

Records indicate that the vessel is based out of Dover, N.H., and is owned by Carter Fisheries. Officials with Carter Fisheries did not return phone calls Sunday seeking comment.

Ruddell said he didn’t know what the crew was fishing for.

According to the Coast Guard, the fishing vessel’s crew was met by the crew of the Legare, a 270-foot “medium endurance cutter from Portsmouth, Va.,” which began towing the stranded Angela Michelle.


Read the full story from The Gloucester Daily Times

Man lost at sea for 2 months caught fish, collected rainwater

April 3, 2015 — A man who was reported missing at sea for about two months was rescued from his crippled boat approximately 200 miles off North Carolina on Thursday afternoon, according to authorities.

Louis Jordan, 37, sailing a vessel named Angel, was reported missing by family Jan. 29, according to a news release from the Coast Guard 5th District Command Center in Portsmouth, Va.

According to Coast Guard spokeswoman Lt. Krystyn Pecora, Jordan had been traveling north when he decided to head offshore to go fishing. Somewhere along the way, he got caught in rough weather, and the boat's mast was broken and its electronic system damaged, Pecora said at a news conference Thursday night.

His boat severely damaged, Jordan was adrift, and the vessel capsized three times, he told NBC News. "I was flying through the air, somersaulting and everything was upside down and backwards," he said.

He survived by eating some food he had on board, fishing with a net and collecting rainwater, Pecora said.

Speaking at a hospital in Norfolk, Va., Jordan told WAVY.com early Friday that  “I rationed my water to where I had drunk about a pint a day. For such a long a time I was so thirsty. And I was almost out of water, and everyday I was like, 'Please God, send me some rain, send me some water,'" he said. "And finally, right before I ran out of water, finally the conditions were perfect."

He read the Bible repeatedly, cover to cover, he told NBC News, and missed barbecue and organic ice cream the most.

Read the full story and watch the video at the LA Times

 

Man rescued after 66 days at sea is ‘utterly thankful and grateful’

April 2, 2015 — The last time Frank Jordan spoke with his son, Louis Jordan was fishing on a sailboat a few miles off the South Carolina coast.

The next time he spoke with him, more than two months had passed and the younger Jordan was on a German-flagged container ship 200 miles from North Carolina, just rescued from his disabled boat.

"I thought I lost you," the relieved father said.

Louis Jordan, 37, took his 35-foot sailboat out in late January and hadn't been heard from in 66 days when he was spotted Thursday afternoon by the Houston Express on his ship drifting in the Atlantic Ocean.

"I was utterly thankful and grateful to the people who rescued me, and I was grateful to God that my parents were not going to be worried about me," Jordan told CNN.

Frank Jordan told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that he had worried about his son, who is an inexperienced sailor, but he held hope because his son had a good boat. And he had the strength to make it.

"He's got very strong constitution and (is strong) not only physically, but spiritually," Frank Jordan told CNN. "And he told me on the phone that he was praying the whole time, so I believe that sustained him a great deal."

Read the full story and watch the video at CNN

Coast Guard searches for man overboard off Nantucket

March 30, 2014 — UPDATE: The body of an overboard crewman has been found. In a follow-up release, the USCG said the crew of the New Bedford-based Hear No Evil, found and positively identified the crewman around 1 a.m. Monday. He was reportedly not wearing a life jacket when he entered the water, USCG said. The crewman's body was transported ashore at Woods Hole by the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Hammerhead. The victim's name has not yet been released.

The United States Coast Guard is searching for a crewman who went missing aboard a scalloping vessel Sunday night. According to a USCG release, Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England watchstanders were notified around 8:30 p.m. that a 54-year-old crew member was missing from the 85-foot Hear No Evil. It is likely the unidentifed crewman fell overboard, according to the release.

Read the full story from Cape Cod Today

DNV GL Launches New Safety Regulations for US Fishing Fleet

March 23, 2015 — The fishing vessel industry fatality rate is 30 times higher than the average of all U.S. industries. To address this, U.S. legislation requires that all new fishing vessels larger than 50 feet must be built to classification rules.

DNV GL is the only classification society to develop rules specifically for the U.S. domestic fishing fleet, addressing how fishing vessels are designed, built and maintained for safety.

The United States is the fifth largest fishing nation in the world, with approximately 110,000 commercial vessels. This means that there are more than 100,000 U.S. fishermen who have their daily work in fishing vessels that often operate in harsh conditions and rough weather. All new vessels built to DNV GL’s class rules will be safer,” said Joar Bengaard who leads DNV GL’s initiative for U.S. fishing vessels from the U.S. HQ in Houston, Texas.

Read the full story from Maritime Reporter