Safety

The crew of the Gloucester dragger Midnight Sun — Capt. Tom Testaverde, his son Tom Jr., his brother Joe Testaverde, and Bobby Gross — suffered a month of anxiety after losing their net during a fishing trip at Wilkinson’s Basin 60 miles northeast of Gloucester on April 6.

The power of prayer came into play in the happy outcome weeks later.

At 2 a.m. that day, "the wind gusted to 40 mph out of the east; the tide was running. The ocean was sloppy," recalled Capt. Testaverde.

His family’s pretty blue and white 86-foot stern trawler was then towing over $20,000 worth of fishing gear — a set of steel trawl doors, cables and a rock hopper net with a 98-foot sweep — on the basin’s muddy, sandy and rocky bottoms over 500 feet down for groundfish at about 3 knots.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

The fishing vessel Patriot will be raised and examined for evidence of what caused it to sink during a winter fishing trip that took the lives of its two-man crew, the attorney for the estate of the owners said yesterday.

Joseph Abromovitz, attorney for Josie Russo — whose husband Matteo Russo, 39, and father John Orlando, 59, were killed in the Jan. 3 incident — said the Coast Guard was working with the salvage company on an engineering plan to raise the Patriot.

"Josie wants to raise the boat," said Abromovitz. "Suffice it to say she is the moving force,"

Abromovitz reiterated his belief that, even without unimpeded access to the boat, the estate — Josie Russo and her two sons, Salvatore Russo, 3, and an infant, John Matteo Russo, who was born this week — would be able to prove that a tug towing a barge brought down the Patriot.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

The online Patriot package is a single-page online library for readers looking to recall or recount past stories — and especially what Coast Guard officials and others may have said along the way. See all the articles at the Gloucester Daily Times.

The commander of Coast Guard Sector Boston promised that an investigation into the delayed search and rescue response would be swift. On January 9, Capt. Gail Kulisch said it was possible the internal investigation or "case study" could be completed within "three weeks". Five days later, Rear Adm. Dale Gabel, the district commander, wrote "I will be able to review the details of the response soon".  Kulisch departs Sector Boston today for a new assignment in Virginia. And neither she nor Gabel have reported again.

VMS, which is required on all fishing boats with groundfish permits, is primarily a law enforcement tool. Boats are tracked by the periodic radio signals that are relayed by satellite into a computer base maintained at the National Marine Fisheries Service. Yet the Coast Guard was unable, without delay and difficulties, to use VMS to locate the Patriot when the assignment wasn’t policing but search and rescue.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

With funding sources depleted, fishing safety drill instructors have decided to volunteer their time at a spring safety training workshop for commercial fishermen.

The free workshop is scheduled for May 15 at UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology.

Training activities, which will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., will include instruction in firefighting, man-overboard procedures, flood and pump operation, and other lifesaving skills that will help fishermen know what to do when facing an emergency situation at sea.

Read the complete story at South Coast Today.

FREE BASIC SAFETY & SURVIVAL TRAINING FOR COMMERCIAL FISHERMEN    

 

Provided by

Rodney Avila – Ted Williams            Fred Matera                Dan O’Connor  

IMP Fishing Gear, Ltd.                      NESTCO                      Life Raft & Survival Equipment    

David Blaney                        Dana Collier                            Kevin Coyle & Staff

Blaney Marine Safety        Marine Safety Consultants    Coast Guard Marine Safety Detachment      

The above Coast Guard certified drill instructors, and proud sponsors, are volunteering their time to provide you with training    

 

TRAINING Friday May 15th, 7:30 A.M. to 2:30 P.M.  

At the University of Massachusetts, SMAST Building  

706 Rodney French Blvd., New Bedford, MA    

 

* Fire Fighting * Man-Overboard Procedures * Flood & Pump Operation * Use of Flares & EPIRBS *  Don Immersion Suits * Deploy Life Raft * Enter Life Raft * Coast Guard Helicopter visit*  

 

PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN IMMERSION SUIT  

(Suits will be provided if you don’t have one)    

LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED BY OCEAN MARINE INSURANCE AGENCY, INC.    

PARKING IS AVAILABLE AT THE NRC BUILDING NEXT DOOR    

 

A NEW IMMERSION SUIT WILL BE RAFFLED OFF  

Compliments of NEW BEDFORD HARBOR DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION      

 

Call and Register with FRAN ABREU  

Tel:(508) 979-1616  ext: 129  

New Directions Southcoast, Inc.  

The key to survival at sea is to have an emergency plan and make sure that the entire crew understands it. Practice MONTHLY safety drills that are realistic and involve the entire team. ALWAYS debrief after safety drills.

The City of New Bedford in partnership with the School for Marine Scieence and Technology at U. Mass. Dartmouth regularly host Fishermen Safety Training sessions. To learn more or to sign up for the next training call New Directions in New Bedford at (508) 979‐ 1616 ext 129.

Read the complete story from UMass.

A city-based fishing boat was being assisted by the Coast Guard and a commercial tugboat Saturday night after it started taking on water about five miles northeast of Cuttyhunk Island, according to the Coast Guard.

As of 9 p.m. Saturday, the 78-foot scalloper Cowboy was still offshore as crew members from the boat and the assisting vessels tried to get the water out of the engine room, according to a Coast Guard spokeswoman. The tides would determine when and where the boat would be towed after the water was drained.

The Cowboy’s crew radioed for help at 2:11 p.m., reporting that the boat was flooding, according to a statement from the Coast Guard.

Read the complete story at South Coast Today.

Some lessons already learned from the Patriot’s sinking are that the Coast Guard needs to work effectively with local fire departments and other emergency personnel to develop a more urgent means of response; and that the Coast Guard needs to be able to work with NMFS to have consistent VMS access in case of an emergency at sea.

Yet, three months after the loss of the Patriot, there’s no sign any of those changes are in place, or even on the drawing board. And now the Sector Boston captain at the enter of the investigation is being transferred.

That’s far short of providing the needed answers to this tragedy; far short of the kind of action the Russo and Orlando families and all of Gloucester deserve.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Times.

The owners of the ocean-going tug Gulf Service will face a suit for causing the deaths of Capt. Matteo Russo and his father-in-law John Orlando aboard the fishing vessel Patriot, which sank under mysterious circumstances in early January.

Joseph Abromowitz, attorney for the estate of the late Capt. Matteo Russo, 36, and his pregnant widow Josie, said yesterday he has begun the process of suing Louisiana-based Hornbeck Offshore Services, a publicly traded leader in the tank-barge industry that specializes in moving petroleum between ports.

The 126-foot-long Gulf Service was built in 1979 and is rated for 3,900 horsepower, according to the 2007 annual report for the $1 billion company.

Read the complete story at Gloucester Times.