Safety

April 2, 2012 – The Coast Guard escorted a New Bedford fishing boat back to harbor Sunday, after flooding Saturday morning overwhelmed the ship's pump, officials said.

The Shamrock began to take on water Saturday morning 65 miles away from Montauk, N.Y., after a plank in the hull cracked and started to leak, Coast Guard officials said in a press release.

A Maine-based fishing boat alerted the Coast Guard, which sent helicopter crews, a jet and two boats to make the rescue. The four-person crew managed to get the flooding under control with the help of three additional pumps and returned to New Bedford about 1 p.m. Sunday, according to the statement.

"They're headed home," said Petty Officer Dan Tankersley.

Read the story from the New Bedford Standard Times.

 

March 28, 2012 – For hours after their boat sank, Ken Henderson and Ed Coen treaded water in the Gulf of Mexico, talking about life and death while struggling to survive. For more than 30 hours, it worked.


Then Henderson was forced to make a decision that would save his life, but not his best friend’s.

On Tuesday, days after the fishing trip ended in tragedy, Henderson recounted the harrowing tale for The Associated Press, alternating between sorrow, guilt and laughter as he recalled the last 30 hours of a man who had been his best friend for 25 years.

The saga began Thursday around noon. They had been fishing for a few hours when Coen noticed the 30-foot Scarab was filling with water. Henderson started four bilge pumps. Water sprayed everywhere.

Coen quickly unhooked the boat from one of the many oil and gas rigs in area where they had been fishing. Henderson revved an engine, but the saltwater that had leaked in kill them quickly.

“Mayday, mayday, mayday Marine 16,’’ Henderson called over his Marine radio. He got no response.

He dialed 9-1-1 on his cellphone. There was no signal.

Suddenly, the bow went up. Henderson flew back. Coen jumped to the right, his sunglasses and cap flying off. Already wearing life jackets, the two ex-Marines grabbed extra life jackets and other floating items.

“The water was so cold it took your breath away,’’ Henderson said.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

 

MARSHFIELD, Mass – March 18, 2012 – When it comes to fishing at sea, hazardous conditions are part of the job: It’s tough work that requires long hours and hard labor, often in bad weather.

In an effort to promote better safety on the water, DiMeo recently teamed up with the Coast Guard and hosted a Commercial Fishing Vessel Safety Day for local fishermen.

The event, held at the Marshfield airport, provided an opportunity for fishermen, charter boat operators, and other mariners to climb aboard a Coast Guard response boat and view an MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter up close. Coast Guard personnel demonstrated how to use flares, de-watering pumps, and survival suits, and talked about the life-saving techniques they use during rescue operations and responding to emergencies off the coast of Massachusetts, which can happen on a weekly basis.

Read the complete story from The Boston Globe.

 

 

 

 

 

March 18, 2012 – In an effort to promote better safety on the water, DiMeo recently teamed up with the Coast Guard and hosted a Commercial Fishing Vessel Safety Day for local fishermen.

The event, held at the Marshfield airport, provided an opportunity for fishermen, charter boat operators, and other mariners to climb aboard a Coast Guard response boat and view an MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter up close. Coast Guard personnel demonstrated how to use flares, de-watering pumps, and survival suits, and talked about the life-saving techniques they use during rescue operations and responding to emergencies off the coast of Massachusetts, which can happen on a weekly basis.

Commercial fishing remains one of the most dangerous occupations in the country, with about 46 fishermen dying on the job every year, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The most recent death off local waters occurred last Nov. 28, east of Cape Cod. A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter picked up a fisherman who had apparently suffered a heart attack.

Read the complete story from The Boston Globe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 38, Jason Bjaranson was starting to figure it might be time to get out of commercial fishing on the Pacific Ocean. He was starting to think he should buy some life insurance, and had second thoughts about making what proved to be his last trip. But he had a family to support, and the bills were piling up.

So he kissed his girlfriend goodbye through the window of the truck, told her he loved her, and did what he has been doing his whole adult life — went to sea to make his living at one of the most dangerous jobs anywhere

But he and three others on the Lady Cecelia never came back.

The 70-foot trawler went down in the night this past weekend, probably in a matter of seconds, 17 miles off the rugged coast of southern Washington. When the Coast Guard reached the scene hours later, there was nothing but an oil slick, an empty life raft and some crab pots to mark where the trawler disappeared.

Read the complete story by The AP at ABC News.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW BEDFORD — 9 March 2012 – It was purely happenstance that commercial fishing captain Tom Quintin was in the right place at the right time to rescue three men when their pleasure craft sank south of Martha's Vineyard on Aug. 6.

The 50-year-old captain was returning from a previously closed fishing area, which had only been open five days earlier, and he was also taking the 101-foot scalloper Patience on a route he normally doesn't take back to New Bedford.

"It happened so quick. The boat was gone in 30 seconds," said Quintin, a New Bedford fishing captain with 20 years experience. "I tell you, they were so lucky."

And the wave of good fortune is continuing for the three men aboard the pleasure craft Cynthia Z and Quintin as the Travel Channel has gotten wind of the rescue and plans to run a story about it.

Read the complete story from The Standard-Times.

 

 

 

 

 

Offshore wind farms have run into stiff head winds in a Coast Guard study of the effect they could have on navigational safety in Atlantic waters from Maine to Florida. The wind farms “will confuse airborne radars and also will confuse seaborne radars and create a wall of clutter,” says sailor Benjamin C. Riggs of Newport, R.I.

A retired Navy captain, offshore racer and sailing instructor at the Navy War College and Naval Academy Preparatory School, Riggs was one of more than 30 people and organizations who answered a Dec. 9 Coast Guard request for information about how wind farms might affect existing shipping routes and waterway uses. The Coast Guard says it wants the information to help ensure that wind farms don’t jeopardize safe navigation.

In an interview, Riggs — a vocal critic of the 130-turbine Cape Wind project approved for Horseshoe Shoals on Nantucket Sound off Massachusetts — says mariners can’t see through or around the wall of clutter that marks a wind farm on the radar. This creates a navigational hazard — at night and in fog, especially — and prevents skippers from using radar to “pick their way through” the maze of turbines.

Read the complete story from Cruz Bay Publishing Inc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Coast Guard crews have rescued two men who were hospitalized after being hurt in unrelated incidents aboard fishing vessels off the southern New Jersey coast.

The first rescue occurred around 2 a.m. Saturday, when a crewmember from the 105-foot vessel Friendship notified Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay in Pennsylvania that a 47-year-old man needed medical attention. A 47-foot motor life boat crew from Coast Guard Station Atlantic City soon took him to shore.

About three hours later, a crewmember from the 78-foot fishing vessel Bald Eagle II reported that a 32-year-old man had injured his arm when it got tangled in a net.

An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Air Station Atlantic City soon flew the man to a hospital, assisted by crewmembers from Coast Guard Station Manasquan Inlet.

Read the complete Associated Press story in The Republic

 

 

 

 

 

NEW BEDFORD — The next safety and survival training for commercial fishermen is scheduled for Feb. 17 at the UMass Dartmouth School of Marine Science and Technology on Rodney French Boulevard.

The free program is open to all New England commercial fishermen and provides instruction in damage control, firefighting, emergency communications, life rafts, immersion suits, man overboard, helo hoist procedures and first aid.

Fishermen participating in the training automatically become members of the Fishing Partnership, the nonprofit group that provides health services and education for commercial fishermen. The Fishing Partnership and New Directions Southcoast are sponsoring the one-day program, which runs from 7.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m.

Registration forms can be obtained from the Partnership office at 114 MacArthur Drive, Hercules SLR at 44 South St., the Harbor Development Commission office on Fisherman's Wharf, the New Bedford Career Center at 618 Acushnet Ave., and the New Directions office at 1213 Purchase St.. They are also available online at new directionssouthcoast.org or by calling (508) 979-1616, Ext. 108.

Read the announcement in The Standard-Times

 

 

 

 

 

 

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — The mystery of what caused a fishing boat to capsize off the coast of New Jersey earlier this month has taken Coast Guard investigators to Texas.

The Coast Guard said Thursday that it at Port of Houston inspecting a commercial ship docked there.

Coast Guard Capt. Meredith Austin said the vessel was determined to be in the area around 10 miles off New Jersey's Long Beach Island where the smaller boat, the Mandy Ness, capsized on Jan. 10. She said Coast Guard boarded the vessel in Virginia one day after the accident and that this time, investigators were seeking interviews with crew members.

She said the Coast Guard is not releasing the name of the commercial vessel due to the ongoing investigation.

Read the complete story from The Houston Chronicle