Safety

A fishing boat that sank off the Alaska coast last year most likely lost its rudder, then flooded and went down, killing five crew members, federal safety officials said Wednesday.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the 35-year-old boat did not have internal controls that would have prevented flooding in the so-called rudder room from spreading into other areas of the 189-foot vessel. In a report, the board said uncontrolled flooding was the probable cause of the tragedy, but conceded that much about the ship’s sinking is unknown.

The Alaska Ranger sank in March 2008 in the Bering Sea, west of Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Five of the boat’s 47 crew members — including the captain, chief engineer and mate — were among the dead.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.

Now that commercial fishing safety classes have sharpened fishermen’s at-sea safety skills, the Coast Guard wants to build on that knowledge with additional training in vessel stability.

The agency is sponsoring six, free training sessions across the Northeast that will teach fishing vessel owners and their crews stability principles and best practices that can help prevent vessels from flooding, sinking or capsizing.

The goal of the training symposium, which begins in New Bedford on Tuesday, is to prevent fishing deaths in the Northeast region, which has averaged about four fishing deaths each year since 2005, according to the Coast Guard.

"We want to help them recognize potential stability issues that can arise throughout a vessel’s voyage, whether it is at the pier, in transit, or engaged in fishing," said Coast Guard Lt. Jennifer Haag, who is coordinating the program.

Read the complete story at The South Coast Today.

Commercial fishermen are invited to sharpen their safety skills during hands-on training Friday at UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology.

The free fishing safety workshop, which will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., is the last of the year. To date, 928 people have participated in the program.

During the workshop, Coast Guard-certified drill instructors will provide training in firefighting, man-overboard procedures, flood and pump operation, immersion suit donning, and life raft deployment. A Coast Guard helicopter will visit the training grounds.

Read the complete story at The South Coast Today.

The Coast Guard has suspended the search for a Maine man who fell overboard from his fishing boat about 125 miles east of Truro between 12 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. Friday.

The Coast Guard cutter Vigorous searched the area for him earlier today, with the help of a Coast Guard jet and the boat he fell from, the 63-foot stern trawler Bella Rose. But the search was suspended at 1:30 p.m. today, said Petty Officer Lauren Jorgensen, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.

The crew of the Bella Rose radioed for help Friday after they realized Chris Hopkins, 31, of Bass Harbor, Maine, was missing.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.

A survival suit believed to be that of Matteo Russo, whose fishing boat Patriot sank in January under still unknown circumstances, has been recovered off the Cape Cod shore by a lifeguard.

The suit, enclosed in an orange bag with no signs of being worn before entering the water, was spotted floating in the surf between Lecount Hollow and Marconi beaches on the Atlantic coast of Wellfleet, about halfway up the forearm of the Cape, the Coast Guard confirmed.

After pulling it from the water between 20 and 30 feet from the beach, the lifeguard found the name Russo on the suit, according to Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

Two senators on opposite coasts, each from a state with a rich maritime tradition, are key to passing legislation requiring the first overhaul of standards and inspections for the nation’s fishing fleet.

Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell chairs the Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe is the subcommittee’s senior Republican member.

The Senate has been the Bermuda Triangle of vessel-safety legislation, and it will take purposeful effort by these two lawmakers to address a fundamental flaw in overseeing an industry with the nation’s highest worker fatality rate.

Read the complete story at The Seattle Times.

Congress this year may impose new construction standards on the nation’s fishing vessels, require training of skippers and mandate Coast Guard inspections in what would be the first major overhaul of the safety laws that regulate the nation’s deadliest occupation.

The big push for new safety legislation comes from a Midwestern congressman, Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., whose district is far from the major fishing ports. Oberstar chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which this month approved new regulation of the fishing industry.

The legislation has been under development for more than two years and is expected to go to the full House for a vote this summer.

Read the complete story at The Daily News Online.

On Thursday afternoon, the 56-year-old scalloper Paul Pinto was fatally injured while fishing with his stepson 10 miles from Gurnet Point when a pulley line snapped and struck him on the back of the head.

Harbor Master Timothy Routhier, who is a paramedic, received a mayday call from Pinto’s stepson about 3 p.m., got into a boat, and responded to the scene with another medic.

Pinto lay unconscious as they worked on his wounds. A Coast Guard helicopter that had been training in the area airlifted him from the 40-foot vessel and flew him to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he died soon afterward, Routhier said.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.

A US Coast Guard commander conceded today that his agency was slow in responding to a fishing boat sinking off the coast of Gloucester in January, but said that the vessel went down quickly and the two men who died probably could not have been saved.

The Patriot sank very quickly and with little warning around 1:30 a.m. on Jan 3, according to a statement from Vice Admiral Robert J. Papp Jr., commander of the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Area. The official Coast Guard report says fishermen Matteo Russo and John Orlando drowned immediately, and there was likely nothing that could have been done to save them.

Coast Guard officials said, however, that response efforts should have been quicker, and the agency will take steps to improve its actions. The Coast Guard was notified about a possible problem aboard the 54-foot Patriot at 1:35 a.m, but failed to launch search vessels until nearly 4 a.m., Papp said. A rescue helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod did not arrive until after 5 a.m., he also said.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.

The Coast Guard yesterday announced that its response to the sinking of the fishing vessel Patriot, which went down under still uncertain circumstances in January with its crew of two, was slow and flawed.

"Our review of this case showed that we were slow to launch search and rescue assets because of poor collection and analysis of information and decision-making regarding the Patriot’s status," said Vice Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr.

According to his report, the search and rescue effort was not launched until 2 hours and 23 minutes after the first notice of distress on the Patriot, which had gone fishing after dark on Jan. 2 to Middle Bank, about 15 miles from Gloucester Harbor.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.