Anecdotal evidence from people who survive the loss of a vessel has long indicated that doing the safety drills on a monthly basis, as required by the Coast Guard, is a key component to making it back alive. Now the Alaska Marine Safety and Education Association (AMSEA) has a study to back up the importance of those monthly drills.
Photo by Earl Jeffrey of AMSEA
Procedures for righting a raft are taught by AMSEA during a fishing vessel drill conductor course at Hydaburg High School.
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In 2007, AMSEA worked with the University of Washington's Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety & Health department to study how long skills taught in AMSEA Drill Conductor, or DC, classes are retained. What they found was, use it or lose it.
Two groups of 30 men and women participated in the study, from fishing vessels between 32 and 58 feet in length. They were predominately salmon trollers and longliners, and mostly from Sitka and Seattle. Group one consisted of commercial fishermen previously trained as DCs; group two had no previous training, but were provided training before the study. They were tested both one month and three months after their training.
Here are a few of the preliminary findings:
* Doing drills regularly matters. Survival skills performance decreased from 100 percent to 86 percent in just one month. Skill loss, however, remains fairly unchanged out to three months, highlighting the need to do monthly drills. Fishermen who were trained years ago scored only 71 percent.
* Age was not a big factor, although there was a moderate negative correlation between age of subject and skill retention.
* Fishermen who had been previously trained as DCs had a higher probability of participating in emergency drills at least once in the season over those that had not been previously trained (71.1 percent versus 40.7 percent). However, only two people from each group reported conducting the drills monthly as required.
Refresher training for DCs is highly recommended, with 96.7 percent of both groups reporting that refresher training would be useful, and 90.5 percent of all the fishermen recommending that refresher training take place from one to five years from the date of initial training.
The training works. The average pre-training test score of fishermen who had never had training was only 64 percent.
A survey also looked at how and if safety drills are conducted on commercial fishing vessels. It appears that fishermen who complete DC training are more likely to conduct drills at some point in the season and with more frequency than untrained fishermen.
The survey found that the biggest obstacle to doing drills, reported by 37.5 percent of previously untrained fishermen and 25.8 percent of those previously trained, was "Master or captain doesn't enforce it."
"Crew too busy" was reported as a major problem by 37.5 percent of untrained but only 6.5 percent of trained fishermen, perhaps demonstrating that fishermen trained to conduct the drills realize how little crew time they take.
Local AMSEA instructor Anna Borland-Ivy reports that there will be a DC training taking place in Homer in April, although the date has not been set yet. To get on the list to take the training and be notified of the date, call Borland-Ivy at 235-5955.
The Alaska Region of NOAA Fisheries has corrected an error that gave 170 tons of total allowable sablefish catch to fishermen in one area of the Gulf of Alaska that should have gone to fishermen in another area of the Gulf. Five hundred and sixty-two quota holders were affected by the error.
"The fishing industry alerted us to the possible error, and they were right," said NOAA Fisheries Acting Regional Administrator Doug Mecum. "We re-figured our numbers and made corrections. Certified letters with revised annual permits have gone out to all involved quota holders."
The 2008 sablefish total allowable catch was incorrectly specified as 1,950 metric tons in the West Yakutat district of the Gulf of Alaska, and 3,390 metric tons in the Southeast Outside district.
The correct numbers for the 2008 West Yakutat total allowable catch is 2,120 metric tons, of which 1,853 metric tons is available for individual fishing quota. Individual permits have been adjusted upwards accordingly. The total allowable catch in the Southeast Outside area is 3,220 metric tons, and individual permits in that area have been adjusted downwards accordingly. Additionally, the 2008 vessel cap for Southeast Alaska has decreased and is now 70,988 pounds in round weight equivalents.
Individuals with questions about their individual fishing quota permits can contact staff at (800) 304-4846 (opt 2) or (907) 586-7202 (opt 2), by fax at (907) 586-7354, or by e-mail at ram.alaska@noaa.gov.
Cristy Fry has commercial fished in Homer since 1978. She also designs and builds gear for the industry. She currently longlines for halibut and gillnets salmon in upper Cook Inlet aboard the F/V Realist.
