Safety

PROVINCETOWN, R.I. — November 19, 2012 — U.S. Coast Guard vessels and state police divers worked into the night Sunday searching for the body of a fisherman about two miles off Race Point after the vessel he was on began capsizing around 11:30 a.m.

Coast Guard Station Woods Hole received a call from the lobster boat Glutton about another boat, Twin Lights, capsizing after becoming tangled in fishing gear, Chief John Harker of the Coast Guard station in Provincetown said.

Fishermen aboard the Glutton were able to rescue one crew member, Harker said. But another was still below decks on the scalloping boat when it sank, state police Trooper Todd Nolan said.

The Twin Lights is captained by Jean Frottier, 69, of Wellfleet.

Air Station Cape Cod sent a helicopter and a Falcon jet to the area to search for the man, Harker said. In addition, two Coast Guard cutters, the Spencer and the Grand Isle, and Massachusetts State Police divers assisted in the search.

After several hours of searching, the mission transformed from one of rescue into one of recovery, Nolan said Sunday afternoon. The time the man would have been in the 50-degree water and the depth where the boat sank, around 192 feet, contributed to that decision, he added.

Coast Guard cutters were still searching around 8 p.m., Coast Guard Petty Officer Robert Simpson said.

Neither Harker nor Nolan would provide the names of either the rescued fisherman or the man assumed to have gone down with the ship.

But on Sunday night, the close-knit community of MacMillan Pier boat owners was already mourning the loss of one of its own.

 

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times

 

 

October 27, 2012 — As Hurricane Sandy heads up the coast, churning seas to dangerous heights, the Coast Guard is urging mariners to return to port by tonight.

In a marine safety information bulletin issued Friday, officials warned that "the potential exists for hurricane-force wind gusts along with seas in excess of 25 feet over the open waters."

While the exact track and timing remain uncertain, forecasters expect Sandy will make landfall near Delaware late Monday or early Tuesday but said the storm could still veer as far north as Connecticut.

However, the Coast Guard's bulletin warns that "no matter where this storm tracks, a dangerous, potentially life-threatening storm is expected for mariners."

"Winds and seas of this nature can damage even large vessels," the bulletin reads.

At the New Bedford waterfront Friday afternoon, fishermen were preparing for the storm by securing their boats with extra lines and placing bumpers at places where their boats could crash against the docks during the storm.

 

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times

 

 

ROCKLAND, Maine — October 14, 2012 — Maine’s Coast Guard fleet hasn’t been stuck in port when rescue calls, law enforcement, oil spills and ice-breaking duties summon them to sea. But given the age of the fleet, that record could be in jeopardy.

“We’re still able to get the missions done,” said Lt. Nick Barrow of the Coast Guard’s Portland office.

But the Tackle, the 65-foot icebreaker tug based in Rockland, marked its 50th year in service this year. And next year, the 65-foot icebreakers Bridle, based in Southwest Harbor, and Shackle, based in South Portland, also will hit the half-century mark.

“They’re beyond their intended service life,” Barrow said.

The small icebreaker vessels — the Coast Guard also operates the 140-foot Thunder Bay, based in Rockland — are critical to Maine in late winter and early spring, he said. The 65-foot vessels are the only ones able to navigate upriver from the Richmond bridge on the Kennebec River.

Recent years haven’t seen heavy icing in the rivers, but if Maine has an especially cold winter, ice jams could cause serious flooding, Barrow said.

Though it is in the 20- to 25-year-old range, the 110-foot patrol vessel Jefferson Island, based in South Portland, is currently in drydock in Rockland for repairs.

“There’s some pretty significant pitting and hull intrusion,” Barrow said.

The Maine fleet also includes the 87-foot patrol vessel Moray, based in Jonesport. And each of the Coast Guard’s six rescue stations in Maine — Eastport, Jonesport, Southwest Harbor, Rockland, Boothbay Harbor and South Portland — have at least two smaller boats, 25-foot and 47-foot vessels, all newer.

Sector Northern New England has been able move vessels around to handle rescue calls and other duties, but the aging resources take their toll, Barrow said.

 

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

 

CAPE MAY, NJ — October 9, 2012 — Coast Guard crews helped rescue three people from a sinking fishing vessel off the New Jersey coast.

The Viking II reported they were taking on water about 80 miles southeast of Cape May. Two Coast Guard air crews dropped dewatering pumps to no avail. Another fishing vessel, the Miss Suzzane, eventually arrived, took the Viking II crew aboard and transferred them to a Coast Guard cutter.

 

Read the story from the AP at the New York Post

 

 

September 26, 2012 — The Coast Guard cutter Seneca assisted the New Bedford fishing vessel Linda approximately 150 miles east of Cape Cod on Saturday evening.

The 79-foot fishing vessel, owned by LV Fishing Inc. of Fairhaven, sent out a distress call after the crew reported the boat was taking on water with seven people aboard.

Another fishing vessel in the area reported the Linda was stable and utilizing pumps, according to a Coast Guard press release. All of the people aboard were equipped with survival suits and the life raft was prepared.

The cutter Seneca, a Jayhawk helicopter crew and a Falcon jet were launched to assist.

The Seneca arrived on scene Saturday evening and assisted the Linda with dewatering, shoring the damaged hull and restarting the engine.

 

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times

 

 

September 25, 2012 — Commercial fishing remains the deadliest job in America, according to data released by the Department of Labor. New statistics about on-the-job deaths in 2011 show that fishermen continue to have a higher chance of dying while working compared with those in other occupations.

Their fatality rate per 100,000 full-time-equivalent workers was 34.6 times the average rate for U.S. workers in 2011.

Fishing is inherently dangerous but it's still important to look at the several ways to make it safer. Inspections, the use of safety gear and training all make a difference. So can the way fishing regulations attempt to address overfishing.

Regulators often unintentionally create a race for the fish by setting short seasons, giving boats just a limited allocation of days to be on the water, or shutting down fishing altogether with emergency closures. Under those circumstances, sitting out bad weather or letting exhausted crews come ashore is harder to do.

Another way to address overfishing is through catch shares, which give fishermen a secure portion of the overall amount of a species that can be caught sustainably. Instead of fishing in a derby to catch the fish before the competition does and before boats are forced off the water, fishermen can time their trips to the best market and weather conditions. A peer-reviewed study in the journal Marine Policy found on average safety nearly tripled in fisheries in the U.S. and British Columbia that switched to catch shares.

Fisherman Jack Cox of Moorehead City, North Carolina said, "I was pressured to go out in a 28-foot boat in bad weather last week because I expect the grouper fishery to get shut down soon until May 1st." In January 2011 rough seas pummeled his boat, causing the deck to separate from the cabin. Luckily no one was hurt, but he was left with a repair bill of roughly $6,000. Cox says if he were in a catch share the crew would have remained on shore that stormy day.

 

Read the full story at the Huffington Post

 

 

September 22, 2012 — A man paramedics rushed to the hospital after he fell 14 feet, injuring his back on a fishing vessel Thursday night, was in “fair” condition at Lahey Clinic in Burlington on Friday.

Crew on board the fishing vessel Venture asked that an ambulance meet the boat at the Jodrey State Fish Pier at 10:30 p.m. Thursday. Police and paramedics responded, and the Venture crew led them onto the boat and to the man, David Peppard, 53, of no known address, who was lying on his back on the deck. They told the emergency personnel that Peppard had fallen 14 feet from a ladder onto the deck.

He had a laceration on the back of his head from the fall, and told paramedics that he couldn’t move his feet or back.

 

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

 

TOKYO — September 23, 2012 — Japan’s coast guard says 13 crew members are missing from a 22-man fishing vessel after it collided with a much larger cargo ship off northeast Japan.

The 119-ton Horiei Maru and the 25,047-ton Nikkei Tiger collided about 900 kilometers east of Sendai around 2:30 a.m. Sunday.

An official at the Shiogama Coast Guard office near Sendai said the smaller vessel may have sunk. Osamu Nishikawa said the coast guard sent two planes to look for survivors.

Nine of the fishing boat’s crew were rescued. Five are Japanese and four are Indonesian. Twelve of the missing are Japanese, and one is Indonesian.

 

Read the full story from the AP at the Boston Globe

 

 

GLOUCESTER, Mass. — September 21, 2012 — Paramedics rushed a man from the fishing vessel Venture to Beverly Hospital on Thursday night after he fell from a 14-foot ladder onto the boat's deck.

Police and paramedics responded to Jodrey State Fish Pier at 10:30 p.m. and crew members met them on the boat. They took them to the man, David Peppard, 53, of no known address, who was lying on his back on the deck. He had a laceration on the back of his head from the fall, and told paramedics that he couldn't move his feet or back.

Crew members said he fell from the ladder while the boat was getting ice at Cape Pond Ice. They rushed the boat back to the fish pier after Peppard fell and met paramedics there.

 

Read the full article at the Gloucester Times

 

 

SITKA, Alaska — September 11, 2012 — A fisherman who spent a night adrift in a 4-by-4 foot plastic fish bin after his boat sank off Alaska says he gave himself pep talks and sang ‘‘Rudolf, the Red-Nosed Reindeer’’ and ‘‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’’ to keep his spirits up.

His fellow crewmember managed to get into a survival suit and washed ashore on a beach after his own night afloat.

A Coast Guard helicopter hoisted Ryan Harris, 19, of Sitka, from his plastic ‘‘lifeboat’’ on Saturday, more than 24 hours after the boat sank on Friday, the Daily Sitka Sentinel (http://is.gd/bgoPcT) reported Monday.

Two hours before Harris’ rescue, crewmate Stonie ‘‘Mac’’ Huffman of Sitka was rescued from a beach about 25 miles northwest of Sitka.

Harris told the newspaper he’s happy both he and his buddy survived after their 28-foot aluminum boat got hit by big waves and overturned.

They were dumped into the water before they could send a mayday. The search for them started after friends reported them overdue Friday night.

‘‘It’s truly a miracle they survived,’’ said Sitka Mountain Rescue Director Don Kluting, who helped in the search.

‘‘I never thought I was going to die, but I was worried about Mac,’’ Harris told the newspaper Monday. ‘‘I'm glad to be here.’’

The two men were fishing for coho salmon about two miles off Cape Edgecumbe when the hydraulics failed on their boat. They fixed that problem, but decided to head back to port.

Then they encountered waves, one of which tipped the boat onto its side.

Two survival suits were on board, but neither man was wearing one when the boat went down. After the boat capsized, the two men climbed onto the upturned hull.

‘‘We had no radio, no cell phones,’’ Harris said.

Huffman later found a survival suit that floated from the wreckage.

 

Read the full story by the Associated Press in the Boston Globe