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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 36 Number 3
November 2009
Do the math; support new safety measures
The loss of 43-year-old Jaime Ortiz, who fell from the Gloucester-based Dominatrix on Oct. 13 while the 39' lobster boat was approximately three miles from shore, has once again put this fishing community in mourning.
The water temperature in the Gloucester area in mid-October was 57°F, plenty cold enough to cause hypothermia quickly for anyone not in an immersion suit.
Cold water adds a whole other level of danger to an already dangerous industry. In August, the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics released the preliminary Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries for 2008. The report compares the number of fatalities and fatality rates across industries.
In this comparison, the agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting sector has 7.7 times the fatality rate of all workers in the US. But this is not the starkest piece of information.
Further analysis by the bureau showed that while fatalities in construction, heavy and civil engineering, and transportation and warehousing sectors all declined, fatalities “among private sector workers in the agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting” sector increased by 11%.
And when the bureau broke down that category into its component parts, fishermen and related fishing industry workers had the highest fatality rate of all occupations – 128.9 per the equivalent of 100,000 full-time workers. Only loggers came close with a rate of 115.7.
In summary, the overall national occupation-related fatality rate for 2008 was 3.6 based on a total of 5,071 fatalities. For fishing-related workers, the fatality rate was about 36.1 times higher than the rate for all US workers.
Clearly it is time to pay more attention to safety in the fishing industry. At a minimum, there is a need for: more safety and operator training; a better understanding of the stability characteristics of the vessels in the fleet; and more equitable safety gear regulations across inspected and uninspected vessels, as well as a more appropriate “line” designation beyond which additional safety gear is required.
Legislation
This summer, the US House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s (T&I) Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation considered HR 2652.
Sponsored by US Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN) with co-sponsors US Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Bill Delahunt (D-MA), and Rick Larsen (D-WA), the bill was under discussion as the “Maritime Safety Act of 2009.”
Then much of HR 2652 was incorporated as Title VIII of HR 3619, the “Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010,’’ and, in late September, the entire bill was voted on favorably by the full House T&I Committee.
The fishing vessel safety related section of the bill still retains the title “Maritime Safety Act of 2009.” This act would require certification of vessel operators, with increased safety training requirements for persons in charge of vessels. It also includes a requirement for dockside exams and specifies the use of survival craft that provide out-of-the-water protection for all individuals.
The act would replace the outmoded “Boundary Line,” the arbitrary line drawn for the convenience of commercial shipping, with the more appropriate three-nautical mile line as the line beyond which certain safety equipment would be required.
Stability
Additionally, newly constructed fishing vessels over 50' in length that operate beyond three miles would be required to conform with new safety and equipment installation standards, and recently built vessels over 79' would be required to be “load-lined.”
Thus, the Maritime Safety Act of 2009 addresses both fishing safety issues and vessel integrity issues.
Combining safety and integrity in federal safety legislation is a very important step toward reducing fatalities. A report recently released by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention attributed 65% of New England fishing fatalities during the 2000-to-2008 period to vessel disasters.
The fishing industry, fishing community organizations, marine engineers, Coast Guard, and training organizations all have had input into the development of HR 2652/HR 3619. The provisions included in the act are based on the research, expertise, and experience of many people associated with the fishing industry.
Economically, it may seem like a hard time to have to think about complying with new safety regulations. But figuring out how to cover those costs is almost certainly less difficult than having to deal with the loss of human life and disruption in our fishing communities caused by a failure to improve federal safety standards.
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