Better Safe Than Sunk—Part 1
Excerpt from U.S. Coast Guard Proceedings of the Marine Safety & Security Council magazine by Dr. Madeleine Hall-Arber, Center for Marine Social Sciences, MIT Sea Grant College Program and Dr. Karina Lorenz Mrakovcich, Department of Science, U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
When the New Bedford, Mass.-based commercial fishing vessel Northern Edge sank on December 20, 2004, only one of the six-person crew survived. Reports explained he was the only one to have participated in fishing vessel safety training.
Soon after, New Bedford’s mayor Fred Kalisz visited the head of NOAA Fisheries in Washington, D.C., to discuss improving safety. Subsequently NOAA Fisheries committed to providing $100,000 toward safety training in New Bedford.
A Sea Change
Ultimately more than 1,200 fishermen attended basic hands-on safety training in Massachusetts between 2005 and 2010. All of the sessions were judged useful and clearly presented. The main suggestions were for slightly longer sessions to allow even more hands-on training, particularly for first aid and fire extinguishing.
Two attendees suggested using a more realistic setting for the firefighting simulation; one suggested a vessel and the other an enclosed space. Another recommendation: Add CPR training to the first aid module.
Workshop trainer Ted Williams explains life raft use.
The Take-Aways
The safety project managers found that direct communication with vessel owners and captains by someone they respect is crucial. Crewmember participation was frequently dependent on the captain’s and/or owner’s encouraging or requiring attendance. Timing is also very important, since it is challenging to attract attendance during active fishing periods, but should be available when safety is still on fishermen’s minds.
The workshops also developed “risk knowledge” among participants so that they began to see safety preparation and training as potentially life-saving rather than simply another bureaucratic requirement. Additionally, the significant level of participation in the safety training by the Northeast fishing industry suggests increasing optimism among fishermen about their ability to survive accidents at sea.
The safety project managers found that direct communication with vessel owners and captains by someone they respect is crucial. Crewmember participation was frequently dependent on the captain’s and/or owner’s encouraging or requiring attendance. Timing is also very important, since it is challenging to attract attendance during active fishing periods, but should be available when safety is still on fishermen’s minds.
The workshops also developed “risk knowledge” among participants so that they began to see safety preparation and training as potentially life-saving rather than simply another bureaucratic requirement. Additionally, the significant level of participation in the safety training by the Northeast fishing industry suggests increasing optimism among fishermen about their ability to survive accidents at sea.
A U.S. Coast Guard at-sea rescue demonstration
In part 2—safety training up close and personal.
Full article is available at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/winter2010-11/
Subscribe online at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/subscribe.asp
Full article is available at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/winter2010-11/
Subscribe online at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/subscribe.asp
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comment Policy
We welcome your comments on postings at all Coast Guard sites/journals. These are sponsored by the U.S. Coast Guard to provide a forum to talk about our work providing maritime safety, security and stewardship for the American people to secure the homeland, save lives and property, protect the environment, and promote economic prosperity.
Please note: Anonymous comments have been disabled for this journal. It is preferred that you use your real name when posting a comment. WE WILL POST THE NAME YOU ENTER WHEN YOU SUBMIT YOUR COMMENT. Also, you are welcome to use Open ID or other user technologies that may be available.
All comments submitted are moderated and will be reviewed before posting. The Coast Guard retains the discretion to determine which comments it will post and which it will not. We expect all contributors to be respectful. We will not post comments that contain personal attacks of any kind; refer to Coast Guard or other employees by name; contain offensive terms that target specific ethnic or racial groups, or contain vulgar language. We will also not post comments that are spam, are clearly off topic or that promote services or products.
We will make our best effort to promptly post those comments that are consistent with the Comment Policy, but given the need to manage federal resources, moderating and posting of comments will usually occur only during regular business hours, Monday through Friday. Comments submitted outside of business hours will be read and posted as quickly as possible.