The good news is that commercial fishing-related fatalities are decreasing, based on five-year averages, according to Jerry Dzugan, executive director of AMSEA, Alaska Marine Safety Education Association.

Between 1987 and 1999, there was an average of 37 fatalities a year. Jump to 2001-2005, and that number dropped to an annual average of 13. In 2002-2006, the average dropped another 3, coming in at 10.

Among the reasons for the decrease Dzugan listed were:

• Better enforcement by the Coast Guard;

• Better equipment on board;

• More training in the fleet; and

• Consolidation of the fleet, resulting in fewer days at sea to figure into the formula.

“Where most of the gain has taken place is the fact that people are surviving a boat sinking,” Dzugan said.

The bad news is that the leading cause of death hasn’t changed.

“Falls overboard still account for about 25 percent of all fatalities,” the head of AMSEA said. As a result, the attention is being focused on why people are falling overboard and why they aren’t wearing life jackets.

Mike Rosecrans, chief of the USCG Fishing Vessel Safety Division in Washington, D.C., also stressed that the number one cause of fishing fatalities is people in the water, whether from vessels sinking or from falling overboard.

“Deck safety is something important, including understanding and managing the risk of working on an open deck,” Rosecrans said.

While lives have been saved as a result of requirements for onboard survival equipment, the industry lacks parallel requirements for deck safety, Dzugan said.

“It’s harder to make requirements for deck safety because the solution involves more change in behavior, and it’s hard to regulate behavior,” he said. “That’s a cultural change. And it happens over time.”

The history of fishing is tightly woven with the dos and don’ts that promise to bring a fisherman safely back to port. Red skies in the morning, sailors take warning. Don’t stir a pot counter-clockwise. Don’t leave port on Friday.

“You have a fisherman with a master’s degree in marine biology that still won’t leave port on a Friday. That’s accepted and nobody makes fun of it,” Dzugan said. “The maritime industries still have one of the strongest cultural heritages of fatalism of any industry. My theory on this is because you can’t control the environment that you’re in. You tend to be more fatalistic the less control you have of an environment.”

He is, however, encouraged that safety is making its way into the discussion of fishermen, which has not always been the case.

“In the old days and still probably now on some boat, you got on board as a new crew member and talked about safety and you got laughed at or it was taboo,” he said. “One guy told me, ‘We don’t talk about that on this boat.’”

Since AMSEA began its U.S. Coast Guard approved drill instructor training in 1991, a program focusing on the training requirements spelled out in the Commercial Fishing Industry Vessel Safety Act of 1988, it has trained more than 7,000 people, with more than 5,000 of the students Alaska mariners. Included in the 10- and 18-hour courses are firefighting, emergency signals, emergency evacuations, flooding control stability, coldwater survival skills, life raft and immersion suit use, procedures for abandoning ship, man overboard recovery and more. Now the emphasis is on refresher training.

“NOISH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) has found out (the training) is effective, but if the incident is five years away from the initial training, the protective value almost went to zero, the same as someone that had not been trained,” Dzugan said. “There’s no legal requirement to take a refresher, but they’re talking about it.”

“They” would be the U.S. Coast Guard. What the new requirements may be is being determined by the rule-making process currently under way.

“We’re concerned that fishermen don’t always have the necessary training before they go to sea and we intend to address that,” Rosecrans said. “It’s shown that training makes the difference and we will address it in regulations big time. People make the difference. It’s not the equipment. … That’s been proven over and over.”

Also being considered is documentation of drills and the stability of vessels between 50-79 feet.

The rule-making process calls for clearance first by the Coast Guard, then the Department of Homeland Security and Office of Budget and Management. A published notice of proposed rule-making will be followed by a three- to six-month period for public comment. Public hearings are sometimes included in the process. An update on the process can be found at www.fishsafe.info. Rosecrans estimates that public comment may begin by late spring or early summer, with new regulations a year and a half away at the earliest.

While some might not welcome additional regulations, Rosecrans’ eye is on advances made in fishing’s safety record and room left for improvement.