Safety

A New Bedford-based fishing boat capsized and sank last year because it became unstable when a full fishing net was being lowered onto the deck, the Coast Guard said in a report released today, November 20.

The 71-foot dragger Costa & Corvo sank about 118 miles east of Nantucket on Georges Bank on Nov. 13, 2008. The captain, Antonio Mesquita, of New Bedford, was never found, but three crew members were rescued by a nearby fishing boat.

"Our condolences go out to the family of Mr. Mesquita, who lost his life in this tragedy," Captain Ray Perry, the comander of Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England, said in a statement.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe. 

In the pre-dawn ocean darkness 60 miles off the New Jersey coast, the captain of a Massachusetts fishing boat heard a brief, panicked radio transmission, lasting less than a second.

The voice, with a southern accent, sounded scared and appeared to say a single word: "Mayday!"

It may have been the lone cry for help that anyone heard from the Lady Mary, a scallop boat based in New Jersey and North Carolina that sank March 24 off Cape May, killing six of the seven crew members aboard.

Antonio Alvernaz, captain of the Kathryn Marie, testified yesterday at a Coast Guard hearing investigating the cause of the disaster. The panel has heard several theories, including the possibility that the Lady Mary’s gear might have gotten snagged on something on the ocean floor, or that the vessel may have been struck by a passing boat.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

A scallop boat that sank off New Jersey in March, killing six of the seven crew members aboard, might have been the victim of a fatal hit-and-run crash on the high seas, its owner’s lawyer said Monday.

Stevenson Weeks, lawyer for Lady Mary owner Royal Smith Sr., said extensive damage to the boat’s rudder, propeller and other equipment indicates that some other vessel hit it and kept going. Smith lost two sons in the tragedy.

Weeks said he based his suspicion on "the nature of the damage and the physics involved."

Weeks spoke during a break in a Coast Guard hearing investigating the March 24 sinking of the Lady Mary about 60 miles off the coast of Cape May. He said striking another vessel and leaving the scene can be a crime, just as it is in a motor vehicle.

Read the complete story at The South Coast Today.

Two missing fishermen were found and rescued by the Coast Guard late Wednesday night, said petty officer Connie Terrell.

The men were found in relatively good condition at around 9 p.m. in the Cape Cod Bay between Sandwich and East Sandwich.

The boat, the Carol and Allison out of Wellfleet, sunk at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday, about an hour after the two called the Coast Guard station in Provicetown to request assistance, Terrell said.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.

The Coast Guard is searching for two fishermen after the pair reported they were taking on water about eight miles east of the entrance to the Cape Cod Canal in Cape Cod Bay on Wed, October 27.

The crew of the 36-foot fishing boat Carol and Allison, based out of Wellfleet, used a cell phone to contact Coast Guard Station Provincetown at 3:21 p.m., requesting assistance. The crew of a nearby tug reported they heard the boat issue a Mayday call, but the cell phone communication between the Carol and Allison crew and the Coast Guard was lost after the initial call, authorities said.

Boat crews aboard 47-foot motor life boats from Coast Guard stations Cape Cod Canal and Provincetown went to the boater’s location but were unable to find the vessel or the crew. The stations and an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod are searching the area, and an urgent marine broadcast is being issued requesting boaters in the area to keep a look out and report any helpful information to the Coast Guard.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

Two years after hosting a safety forum for local fishermen, Rep. Barney Frank announced the House has passed a Coast Guard Reauthorization Bill containing safety improvements for the industry.

The bill, which passed Friday by a vote of 385-11, creates a fishing safety training grant program, calls for federally funded research to improve fishing safety technology and updates requirements for onboard safety drills and equipment. In addition, the bill sets new safety standards for smaller vessels.

"Fishing is a dangerous business, but there is a lot that can be done to minimize the hazards faced by fishermen," Frank, D-Mass., said in a press release. "This bill makes safety training and research a high priority, and it provides the resources necessary to make a difference."

Read the complete story at The South Coast Today.

The tragic story of lobsterman Jaime Ortiz, who was lost after falling overboard from the boat Dominatrix last week and leaves a wife and five children in his native Honduras, once again cast a pall over Gloucester and its fishing community, which never needs to be reminded of the dangers fishermen face each and every day at sea.

Indeed, while Ortiz had just come to Gloucester just a year earlier, he represented an important grass-roots piece of today’s fishing industry — a relatively new immigrant who came to America’s oldest seaport to work hard and earn a better living for himself and his family.

But amid the tragedy of his loss and the poignancy of a hastily organized gathering at the Fishermen’s Memorial, it was also heartwarming to see Gloucester’s fishing community — notably the Fishermen’s Wives Association — pull together to honor Ortiz and show his extended family that they are not alone in their time of grief. And here’s hoping the community at large extends its support to the drive the Fishermen’s Wives’ Association has launched for Ortiz’ family back home.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

At the Fishermen’s Memorial, whose cenotaph makes 5,368 the number "known to be lost at sea and honored here," an informal prayer service took place in the late afternoon yesterday for newcomer Jaime Ortiz.

The 5,369th fisherman of Gloucester known to be lost at sea and honored in the shadow of the Man at the Wheel statue yesterday was 43 years old, a husband and father of five children in the care of his wife back in Honduras.

Ortiz slipped off the back of the lobstering boat Dominatrix on which he had been the sternman since the summer, and was lost on the afternoon of Tuesday, Oct 13, within sight of the shore.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

A fishing boat crewman fell overboard about three miles south of Gloucester’s Eastern Point on the afternoon of Oct., 13, the Coast Guard said.

The crewman was on the stern of the 39-foot Gloucester-based Dominatrix when he fell at about 2 p.m. He was not wearing a lifejacket or survival suit.

A 25-foot boat and a 47-foot boat from Station Gloucester are searching the area, as well as a jet and a helicopter from Air Station Cape Cod, the Coast Guard said this afternoon in statement.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.

Click here to read Rear Admiral Brice-O’Hara’s statement.

The delayed effort to unravel signals of the calamity that sank a Gloucester fishing boat in January was caused by analysis-paralysis in an inexperienced Coast Guard chain of command while two senior on-duty emergency response officers slept.

A congressional subcommittee reviewed these findings yesterday — and wanted to know why.

Without commenting directly about the flaws in the performance of the service in the sinking of the Patriot, which claimed the lives of two Gloucester fishermen, Rear Adm. Sally Brice-O’Hara, a search and rescue expert, conceded training and orientation of duty officers needed improvement.

The only witness in a two-hour hearing, she also said more staffing would allow a shortening of the 24-hour shifts that found key decision-makers at the Sector and District levels in Boston sleeping — as allowed — while, down the chain, inexperienced officers wrestled with information overload and indecision in the early morning hours of Jan. 3.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.