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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 37 Number 7
March 2010
ME study looks at safety equipment, training
How safety conscious are Maine fishermen as a group? How many have the safety equipment appropriate for cold-water fishing? How many have had safety training within the last five years?
Prompted by the hazardous nature of fishing in the cold water off of Maine and the importance of the fishing industry to livelihoods and the state’s economy, Mary E. Davis, PhD recently set out to find the answers to these questions.
With the support of an award from Maine Sea Grant, she is working to determine to what extent Maine fishermen comply with the Commercial Fishing Vessel Safety Act of 1988.
This article, the first of three that will discuss the results of the study, lays out the methodology used, the demographics of the study participants, and some early findings.
During 2008 and 2009, across multiple seasons and with the help of the Maine Marine Patrol, Davis and an assistant boarded a random, representative sample of fishing vessels. There were 259 in all participating in six different fisheries ranging from Kennebunkport to Lubec. When asked to answer a brief questionnaire, every one of the captains said yes.
Davis and others developed the questionnaire in consultation with the Coast Guard, the Maine Commercial Fishing Safety Council, whose membership includes fishermen, and the Maine Marine Patrol.
Questions included: vessel particulars such as type, length, age, and decal status; fishery; equipment; safety training; and the captain’s background and perception of risk.
Basics on board
The captains were owners of 94% of the vessels studied and were highly experienced. Additionally, 84% had a family history of fishing. Interestingly, 84% said they knew how to swim, a finding that seemingly contradicts a commonly held belief that many fishermen can’t.
In terms of safety equipment, the raw data indicated that there was good compliance for many safety items, although these data will have to be analyzed more carefully to account for the variations in requirements in the 1988 regulations based on length of the vessel, location relative to the Boundary Line, and nautical miles from land.
Also, their installation and operability were not examined and so some equipment could be out of compliance and nonfunctioning in an emergency.
Still, here’s what the study found.
Bilge pumps, fire extinguishers, and a radio were present on over 99% of the boats. A compass, personal flotation devices, flares, and a ring buoy were present on 98% of the boats surveyed.
With LORAN-C inoperable as of Feb. 8, it was reassuring to know that 96.4% of the boats surveyed had a GPS-based instrument on board.
In terms of the raw data, only 54% of the vessels had EPIRBs, 36% had survival craft, and 75% had survival suits. Only 71% had suits with reflective tape.
Although 89% had a first aid kit, only 31% had a first aid manual to go with it.
Training shortfalls
Safety and first aid training did not show up as strongly as safety equipment in this survey. The median years of fishing by those who took the survey was 27, so the interviewed captains were highly experienced. Yet:
• 26%, one quarter, had not had CPR training;
• 34%, fully one-third, had never had first aid training;
• 59% had never had survival suit training;
• 66% had not had life raft training;
• 78% had not participated in a drill instructor course; and
• 76% had not had cold-water training.
Fewer than a quarter of the captains interviewed had had any of these trainings within the past five years.
Clearly there is room for more training for Maine fishermen. The Maine Department of Marine Resources has addressed this issue in part by requiring lobster apprentices to take the Coast Guard-certified drill instructor course prior to obtaining a full lobster license.
ME Fishermen’s Forum
At the Maine Fishermen’s Forum, which will be held March 4-6 at the Samoset Resort in Rockport, Coast Guard personnel will conduct free water safety training.
These Friday and Saturday morning sessions will include life raft and survival suit drills, water survival techniques, and free inspections of survival suits.
Mary Davis and Ann Backus, in collaboration with the Coast Guard, will discuss the study and its preliminary findings in terms of safety and compliance during a forum seminar scheduled for Saturday, March 6 from 1 pm to 2:30 pm.
FISH SAFE:
• Know what equipment the Commercial Fishing Vessel Safety Act of 1988 requires you to have.
• Participate in a safety training session soon – perhaps at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum!
• Join us at the forum for a presentation and discussion of the study results on March 6.
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