Safety

POINT ROBERTS, Wash., — September 6, 2013 — Good Samaritans rescued five people from a sinking commercial fishing boat Thursday afternoon, Sept. 5, off the coast of Point Roberts.

The U.S. Coast Guard responded to the 50-foot wooden vessel, Sea Breaker, in distress at 3:35 p.m., said Coast Guard Lt. Raphael Sadowitz. Other fishermen in the area saved the five crew members about 2 1/2 miles southeast of Point Roberts, where the water is close to 200 feet deep. None among the rescued crew needed medical aid.

Dustin Terpening, a spokesman for the state Department of Ecology, said the boat capsized before sinking, but authorities aren't sure why.

Sadowitz didn't know what the fishermen were fishing for. No details were available Friday about the rescuers.

Read the full story at The Bellingham Herald 

September 8, 2013 — Donald Alversa, a 24-year-old Montauk man, died after a fishing accident aboard a dragger off the coast of North Carolina on Saturday night.

His aunt, Corinne Alversa Wizelius, said he passed away at a Virginia hospital after he was injured and flown from the commercial fishing vessel, the "Jason & Danielle," based out of Montauk.

Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Brandyn Hill, a spokesman out of the fifth district, said the Coast Guard received a request for a Medevac on Saturday night at about 8:30 p.m., from the 90-foot dragger, located about 45 miles northeast of Kill Devil Hills, N.C., on the Outer Banks.

A crew member suffered a head and neck laceration after a wire parted, Hill said. He said the Coast Guard does not release or verify the names of people involved after a case has been closed.

Read the full story at East Hampton Patch

September 5, 2013 — On Friday, September 13, a FREE safety and survival training for fishermen will be held at the U.S. Coast Guard Station, 93 Main St. in Hull, MA from 7:30 AM to 3:30 PM.

This hands-on training, sponsored by the Fishing Partnership, is conducted by Coast Guard certified fishing vessel safety instructors. Contact on-line at www.fishingpartnership.org or call Lori at 781-635-0011.

 

 

OGUNQUIT, Maine — August 28, 2013 — It’s been nearly a week since William “Billy Mac” McIntire, a well-known lifelong fisherman out of Perkins Cove, was last seen.

The Coast Guard called off an extensive search for McIntire Sunday. He has been missing since Aug. 22, when he went out on his boat, The Clover, with friends and jumped in the water about a mile off the shore of Perkins Cove. The Coast Guard said he became “distressed” and disappeared from sight.

Through days of searching with no sight of McIntire, 51, friends and family members kept vigil on the shore. This week they shared their memories of the man who lived in Cape Neddick section of York, saying he always kept them laughing.

Mark Walz, a senior photojournalist with CNN, recalled meeting McIntire while assigned to cover President George H.W. Bush’s Thanksgiving in Kennebunkport, shortly after he won the 1988 presidential election.

“It was my first time in K-Port, and while walking around the town I happened upon the Port Gardens bar which was the locals’ spot underneath the old Port Gardens Inn,” he said. “It was that night I met Billy Mac, ‘The Heart Attack’ McIntire. I got the impression that the ‘heart attack’ reference was his effect on the ladies. Billy Mac was quick to befriend myself and some other cameramen and introduced us around. I had the impression that Billy Mac was the ‘lord’ of the place, and definitely the largest personality in the bar. Rounds of shots were had, and a friendship was born.

“I loved hearing of his stories of harpooned giant tuna and later, he even invited me out on his boat with my television camera to shoot a story, though I couldn’t leave my responsibilities of covering the president. Over the next four years, our friendship grew, and I always looked up Billy Mac to hear of his latest adventures. I was saddened to hear of his passing, and it sounds like he gave his life to save another. That was Billy Mac.”

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News  

 

GRAYS HARBOR, Wash. — August 26, 2013 — The U.S. Coast Guard medevaced a man who had been knocked unconscious aboard a fishing vessel, 20 miles west of Gray’s Harbor, Wash., Saturday morning. He was taken to Legacy Emmanuel Medical Center in Portland.

At approximately 6:34 a.m., Sector Columbia River received a report from the fishing vessel Jackpot that a crew member had been knocked unconscious when a block came apart and struck him in the head.

It was originally reported that the man had no pulse and had stopped breathing. A federal observer who was aboard the fishing vessel performed CPR.

The crew member reportedly began breathing again, but did not regain consciousness.

Read the full story at The Daily Astorian 

 

 

August 26, 2013 — There’s no question that farming and ranching can be dangerous. With a fatality rate of 21.3 per 100,000 workers, it’s an occupation fraught with risk.

However, in a new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, farming is still safer than several other occupations, including logging (No. 1), commercial fishing (No. 2) and aircraft pilots (No. 3). It also falls behind roofers, ironworkers and sanitation workers. See the graphic at right to see the top ten most dangerous jobs.

In the list, farming comes in at the nation’s 9th riskiest job. 

"Anytime you're operating heavy equipment, there's inherent danger," Don Duval, a grain farmer in southern Illinois and president of the White County Farm Bureau told CNN Money. "But there's been a lot of consolidation so there are fewer farmers to educate now. That makes it easier."

Read the full story at Dairy Herd Network

August 22, 2013 — A new study published today by the Center for Public Integrity confirms that more workers die in the commercial fishing industry than in any other job.

But unlike conventional wisdom that the most dangerous place in the most dangerous industry is Alaska, the Center's report says this: "no place … is more deadly for commercial fishermen than the East Coast."

"From 2000-2009, the NIOSH report shows, 165 fishermen died from Florida to Maine," says the Center, using data from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

"That’s more than Alaska — 133 deaths — which had long been viewed as the most brutal place for commercial fishing but saw deaths dip amid a safety push. It’s a greater death toll than in the Gulf of Mexico, which suffered 116 deaths, or the West Coast, with 83."

Researchers for the Center said the industry is made more dangerous by a culture of independence, tight budgets and government's twin failure to institute new safety rules and aggressively enforcing those that exist.

Read the full story at The Oregonian 

 

August 21, 2013 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Three fishermen aboard the scalloper Friendship were treated for smoke inhalation Tuesday after a blaze erupted in the engine room as the vessel was heading out on a fishing trip, fire officials said.

District Chief Scott Kruger said six firefighters on the Fire Department's 41-foot boat boarded the fishing vessel inside the hurricane barrier and extinguished the fire. The ship then made it to the state pier under its own power.

Crew members thought they had the blaze aboard 99.1-foot Friendship extinguished, but it flared up again and firefighters used a dry chemical (carbon dioxide) to put it out, he said.

The fire started as the fishing boat was in the vicinity of Butler Flats Lighthouse. It turned around about 4:22 p.m. and headed inside the hurricane barrier to meet the Fire Department, Kruger said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

VALDEZ, Alaska — August 11, 2013 — The following was released by the United States Coast Guard:

Coast Guard and State of Alaska personnel are monitoring a 65–foot fishing tender grounded near Shoup Bay, four miles west of Valdez, Sunday.

The owner of the 65–foot fishing tender, Fate Hunter, is working with Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Valdez and State of Alaska personnel to minimize environmental impact from the grounding and refloat the vessel.

Coast Guard Sector Anchorage command center watchstanders received a call Sunday morning from the crew of the Fate Hunter, reporting the vessel had run aground near Shoup Bay with four persons on board. The good Samaritan fishing vessel Akemi responded to the scene to assist and safely transported all four persons back to Valdez. No injuries or major structural damage to the vessel were reported.

Read the full news release from the United States Coast Guard