Saving Seafood

As fishermen weather the winter cold, are they truly prepared for survival?

January 27, 2021 — The temperatures were awfully chilly this weekend.

On Saturday night, 27 degrees at Provincetown Municipal Airport, with winds at 25 miles per hour and gusts to 37. The low Saturday night was 22 degrees.

It felt like the first truly freezing temperatures this winter on the Outer Cape.

That chill is a reminder of what fishermen have to consider every time they leave the dock.

At a December training in Sandwich, 25 crewmen and captains from Cape and New Bedford fishing vessels sat down in slushy snow to wriggle into what could be the most important article of clothing they will ever try on.

They call them Gumby suits, or immersion or survival suits. A survival suit is bright orange with oversized hands and feet and a tight-fitting hood that reveals only a small moon of flesh: eyes, nose and mouth. The water temperature on that training day was 47 degrees, and Dan Orchard, the vice president of Fishing Partnership Support Services, had the men suit up and jump into the water within a half-hour of arrival. Going from comfort to cold, disorienting water temperatures was about as close to the real thing as could be had shoreside.

Read the full story at Wicked Local

Wellfleet fisherman among those trained in Sandwich to survive the winter sea

December 28, 2020 — Temperatures at the Sandwich Marina on Friday morning, Dec. 18, stood at the freezing mark, with a bitter wind and driving snow. Despite this, 25 crewmen and captains from Cape and New Bedford fishing vessels sat down in slushy snow to wriggle into what could be the most important article of clothing they will ever try on.

They call them Gumby suits, and it’s easy to see why. A survival suit is bright orange with oversized hands and feet and a tight-fitting hood that reveals only a small moon of flesh: eyes, nose and mouth.

The water temperature in the marina was 47 degrees, and Dan Orchard, the vice president of Fishing Partnership Support Services, had the men suit up and jump into the water within a half-hour of arrival. The shock of going from comfort to cold, disorienting water temperatures was about as close to the real thing as could be had shoreside.

Orchard and other staff from the fishing partnership were conducting a day of survival training for fishermen after captains requested it following the sinking of the Emmy Rose. Four fishermen died with the wreck 20 miles east of Provincetown in the early morning hours of Nov. 23.

Read the full story at Wicked Local

Cape Cod, New Bedford fishermen train to survive the winter sea

December 21, 2020 — Temperatures at the Sandwich Marina on Friday morning stood at the freezing mark, with a bitter wind and driving snow. Despite this, 25 crewmen and captains from Cape and New Bedford fishing vessels sat down in slushy snow to wriggle into what could be the most important article of clothing they will ever try on.

They call them Gumby suits, and it’s easy to see why. A survival suit is bright orange with oversized hands and feet and a tight-fitting hood that reveals only a small moon of flesh: eyes, nose and mouth.

The water temperature in the marina was 47 degrees, and Dan Orchard, the vice president of Fishing Partnership Support Services, had the men suit up and jump into the water within a half-hour of arrival. The shock of going from comfort to cold, disorienting water temperatures was about as close to the real thing as could be had shoreside.

Orchard and other staff from the fishing partnership were conducting a day of survival training for fishermen after captains requested it following the sinking of the Emmy Rose. Four crew members and their captain died with the wreck 20 miles east of Provincetown in the early morning hours of Nov. 23.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times