Articles Posted in Maritime Safety

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 Lam’s behavior risked the lives not only of his crew and a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration observer on board, but also other crewmembers at sea. Capt. Shannon Gilreach, commander, US Coast Guard Honolulu, said, “Mariners who intentionally sleep while on watch or abandon the wheelhouse after setting the helm on autopilot put the lives of their crews and other mariners at risk.”

Lam’s punishment is he cannot act as master or person in charge of any commercial vessel for one year, and he must attend Coast Guard-approved training after the one-year probation is complete. He also must volunteer 60 hours of community service.

According to the Coast Guard, the year before the above charge Lam’s boat collided with another boat while he was sleeping at the wheel. He was fined $2500.

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 Association. The new edition updates information on survival equipment, such as how to efficiently put on an immersion suit; specific duties during an emergency, such as how to make a distress call; and first aid, including specific examples of casualties. Other chapters discuss vessel safety, reading the weather, handling fishing gear safely, fatigue, hydration, nutrition and other essential safety skills. You may order the book and download it at seagrant.uaf.edu/bookstore/pubs/MAB-41.html. However, no one book can completely cover all the dangers of commercial fishing. Another good reference is the North Pacific Fishing Vessel Owners Association Vessel Safety Manual. Fishermen should also understand the Fishing Vessel Safety Act. Boost your chances of success and update your knowledge of safety and survival skills.

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, depending on vessel and crew size and working distance from shore, each fishing vessel is required to carry personal flotation devices (PDFs), emersion suits, and/or survival craft; lifesaving rings; distress signals like flares, flags, and smoke signals; an electronic position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB); and fire fighting equipment. All this equipment must be maintained and tested as specified. For the requirements pertaining to your fishing vessel, check out 46 CFR 28.100 – 165.

The Coast Guard continues to conduct free dockside safely inspections, free of penalties. If there are discrepancies, they will provide a list of what you need to do to correct them. Vessels passing inspection receive a safety decal to display. The dockside safety inspection is voluntary until October 16, 2015, when it becomes mandatory. The Coast Guard can conduct at-sea inspections at their own discretion, and the 46 CFR 28 requirements must be met or the voyage is terminated and remains terminated until the problems are rectified. To request a voluntary dockside safety inspection, please click here.

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 Stacey and Jacobsen understand fishermen, how fishing accidents happen, and how fishing accidents can be prevented. Beard Stacey and Jacobsen have obtained record breaking results for their clients. The firm has recovered millions of dollars in compensation for their clients located throughout the United States.

The Alaska fishing fleet remains primarily based in Seattle, where skilled shipyard work can be performed on the vessels that need to be prepared to safely take on the extreme conditions encounterd in Alaska. Many salmon vessels are now preparing to work the lucrative summer Alaska salmon fishing season, with gillnetters, purse seiners, tenders, and processors set to leave port in the next several weeks.

For those fans of the Deadliest Catch, the crab fishing vessel NORTHWESTERN can be seen up close at the Port of Seattle Fishermen’s Terminal northern dock, located off Commodore Way and 20th Street. NORTHWESTERN is a classic design of Alaska crab fishing vessel with a long history of safely working in the dangerous waters of the Bering Sea.

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 the Coast Guard conducted an at-sea boarding of F/V ARCTIC STORM this past Thursday. According to the Coast Guard, there were six counted safety violations on ARCTIC STORM, including that the vessel life raft and hydrostatic release had expired back in 2006. This event, which is fortunately actually a non-event, serves as a good reminder to keep up with safety regulations while out fishing.

The Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010, Title VI, and the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2012, Title III, encode current laws and regulations regarding safety requirements on a fishing vessel. This gear must be kept in good repair, easily accessible, fit to the person using it, and within the expiry. The expiry is important because rubber, adhesives, fabrics, and many other materials used in rafts, personal flotation devices (PFD), and immersion suits eventually deteriorate in the extremes of weather and sea. Likewise, inflation propellants lose their pressure and efficacy over time. It can be and often is a matter of life and death to have appropriate safety gear that doesn’t come apart at the seams when you most need it.
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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 contains a high amount of sulfur (over 0.5%), and some of this sulfur occurs as hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas. Reported to have been standing no more than two feet downwind of the valve release, the Coast Guard member suffered severe H2S exposure symptoms over the next few days, resulting in renewed warnings by the Coast Guard on this serious danger.

You know that “rotten egg” hydrogen sulfide odor when you smell it at low levels, even below one part per million, but if you smell it in enough quantity, you probably won’t smell it for long. That’s because, at 100ppm or above, it quickly paralyzes the nerve centers inside your nose. If you don’t get away fast enough, other parts of your body become paralyzed, in the worst cases leading to unconsciousness, coma, and death. Even 10ppm may pose a health risk, and 50-100ppm is enough to overcome a person. At lower levels, H2S exposure symptoms include irritated eyes, nose, throat, and lungs. Higher levels of H2S include headache, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. These symptoms may have a delayed onset of hours or days, as the unfortunate Coast Guard member mentioned above experienced.
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