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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 6
February 2006
Coast Guard recommendations
The extensive investigation of the Dec. 20, 2004 sinking of the scalloper Northern Edge prompted the Coast Guard to make the following recommendations.
Operator licenses and crew certification – The Coast Guard should obtain legislative authority to require operators of certain commercial fishing vessels to hold a vessel operator license. Furthermore, it should require operators who hold a federal fishery permit to have a vessel operator license and require certain crewmembers to hold a crew competency certificate similar to a merchant mariner’s document.
Informal training standards for operators and crew – The Coast Guard should reevaluate required training for drill instructors, require safety awareness and equipment hazards instruction for each crew member, and require initial and periodic crew safety briefings. It should also require vessel operators to log mandatory drills.
Safety standards for survival equipment – The Coast Guard should require the crew to wear personal flotation devices (PFDs) in designated areas on deck and encourage the design of PFDs that don’t interfere with work. It should also call for the study and development of guidance for determining locations on vessels that meet the “readily accessible” requirement for survival suits stowage.
Research and development – The Coast Guard should encourage development of survival suits that are easier to put on and wear and of a full-body protective suit that can be comfortably worn in moderate temperatures and that provides reasonable protection against hypothermia.
It also should encourage the development of scupper gates that can be remotely operated in case of emergencies or that allow for drainage of the deck while keeping the catch on deck.
Mandatory vessel safety exams – The Coast Guard should obtain legislative authority to require commercial fishing vessels to undergo periodic vessel safety inspections and enforce such standards at the dock.
Safety and stability standards – The Coast Guard should require stability letters for all commercial fishing vessels 50' and over and establish watertight integrity and subdivision requirements for commercial fishing vessels less than 50'.
It should also prescribe standards for winch motor brake systems used in conjunction with towing cables, so that the brake slips if the tow cable reaches a certain tension. And it should require developing “good marine standards and practices for application to equipment, designs, and operations on commercial fishing vessels.
The investigators noted that most of these recommendations come from the 1999 Fishing Vessel Casualty Task Force report titled “Living to Fish, Dying to Fish.”
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