Kevin Lam, 43, master of the fishing vessel LADY ANN MARGARET, pled guilty to eight charges of sleeping at the wheel for extended periods of time with no other person on watch, said the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii on October 24, 2014. The prosecution said that…
Commercial fishing is still the most dangerous job in the nation. Knowledge is power and potential survival, so every mariner can learn from reading the seventh edition of “Beating the Odds: A Guide to Commercial Fishing Safety, by Susan Clark Jensen and Jerry Dzugan of the Alaska Marine Safety Education…
Recently, the Coast Guard in Alaska terminated three fishing vessel voyages, one for not having emergency flares, and two for not having other necessary safety gear on board. All commercial fishing vessels are required by law to have safety gear and a crew trained in how to use it. Briefly,…
The maritime law offices of Beard Stacey and Jacobsen PLLC are located in Seattle at Fisherman’s Terminal. Out the window of their offices, the attorneys of Beard Stacey and Jacobsen watch the Alaska fishing fleet come and go. With 90 years of combined maritime law experience, the lawyers at Beard…
The U.S. Coast Guard is authorized to board vessels at sea in order to do vessel safety inspections, and if discrepancies are found, they are authorized to escort the vessel and crew back to port and deny future voyages until those discrepancies are resolved. An example of this is when…
Recently, during a Port State Control inspection of an oil tanker, the personal gas safety meters of one member of the Coast Guard and one of the tanker crew went off when the crew member opened the valve to a pressurized tank holding Grade E Sour Crude. Sour crude oil…