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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 3
November 2006
FISH SAFE
Cascade of events led to entanglement death
From the fall of 1999 through the spring of 2000, a team of us from the Harvard School of Public Health interviewed over 100 Maine commercial lobstermen from Kittery to Spruce Head. We asked lobstermen if they had ever been caught in trap rope and we asked what strategies they used to prevent their sternmen and themselves from getting caught.
Our analysis showed that a significant number – 70% of those interviewed – had been seriously entangled to the point of losing a glove or a boot or of having an ankle, hand, or wrist caught in trap rope or of being pulled overboard.
The results of this study were developed into a poster that was mailed to all licensed lobstermen in Maine, given to the Coast Guard to distribute and discuss at dockside exams, and provided to a number of lobster co-ops along the coast.
Through discussions with lobstermen at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum, the Rockland Lobster Festival, and at the Stonington Fishermen’s Fun Day, it is clear that lobstermen are paying more attention to rope.
Some have installed rope lockers or bins. Many carry knives upside down on their oilskins now. And many have placed knives under the rail and at the transom where they can reach them in the event of an entanglement.
August fatality
It was with great sadness that we received word that James Tippett aboard the Virginia Ann out of Portsmouth, NH drowned on Aug. 9 after becoming entangled in trap rope during trap setting.
The vessel owner had warned Tippett to stay away from the rope. But after seven of 10 traps had been launched, the rope of the eighth trap caught his leg and pulled him out the open transom of the vessel and into the water.
In many incidents, it’s not a single problem but a cascade of events that results in the injury, fatality, or other loss or damage.
Mark Haddon, an occupational health hazards expert, developed a matrix to use as a tool to study accidents, to pin-point vulnerable times and factors within a cascade of events leading to an accident, and to develop strategies for reducing the risk of similar accidents in the future.
The death of a fisherman results in great anguish for his family and for the vessel owner and his family. It is in the spirit of learning from the death of one fisherman in hopes of preventing the death of another that I present Haddon’s matrix containing some of the factors that played a role in the cascade of events on the Virginia Ann.
Two major concepts surface here.
First, safety training and associated routine drills for both the owner and the sternman, as well as a dockside exam, would likely have made a major difference in the outcome of this event.
After training and the exam, the sternman and owner would probably have had a greater appreciation for the importance of wearing a personal flotation device (PFD), although, admittedly, it is well known in the industry that fishermen do not like wearing PFDs. Also, the owner would probably have responded quickly with the life ring.
Additionally, a method of reboarding the vessel – either a rope ladder, a built-in ladder, or large scuppers – could have been available.
Second, safe work practices would have called for knives to be taped on oilskins and mounted in various locations on the vessel, especially in this open-transom vessel.
The sternman might have better understood the need to stay out of the way of the running traps. Had a rope locker been a feature of the vessel, the opportunity for this type of incident would have been considerably reduced.
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