AMSEA instructor Anna Borland-Ivy talked about the class. "It's a drill instructor's class for fishermen," Borland-Ivy explained. "Every vessel that operates or transits outside three miles at any time is required to run safety drills every 30 days. They need to do a fire drill, man-overboard drill, flooding drill and abandon ship drill. Those drills have to be run by a qualified drill instructor, and that's what this class is for."
The class is approved by the U.S. Coast Guard and recommended for captains and crew serving on any commercial vessel. The course provides practical information on survival equipment found on most commercial vessels, and skills are learned in a hands-on format. The course meets the training requirements for commercial fishermen operating on documented vessels beyond the Boundary Line. Successful course completion also earns sea time toward licensure, according to the AMSEA Web site.
Topics covered in the course include fire fighting, life rafts, maydays, immersion suits, personal flotation devices, flares, emergency drills, cold-water survival skills and Emergency Position Indicating Radiobeacons, or EPIRBs.
Borland-Ivy discussed some skills participants can expect to take away from the class.
"We learn how to check safety equipment, how to initiate someone to a vessel, how to react in an emergency, and we learn how to run drills to react better in an emergency," she said.
Part of the class will take place either in the pool or at the harbor, and attendees need to bring their own immersion suit, bathing suit, towel and sack lunch. AMSEA will provide a life raft for the class.
The class is 18 hours long over the course of two days. The Coast Guard will pay for the class for anyone who brings some sort of commercial fishing documentation, such as a crew member license or permit card. Otherwise the fee is $150 for AMSEA members, and $200 for nonmembers.
For more information or to enroll, contact Anna Borland-Ivy at 235-5955 or by e-mail at winterblues@alaska.net.
Scientists aboard a research vessel sailing about 150 miles west of Scotland have measured the largest waves ever recorded by a scientific instrument, according to an article published in Marine Executive Magazine.
The team from Britain's National Oceanography Center recently published a study on ocean waves based on research performed in 2000. Until now, these large waves were thought to appear alone, but the scientists encountered a group of monster waves. This new data, although initially troubling for shipbuilders and those who would go to sea on large ocean vessels, should help perfect computer simulations of this type of phenomena, the article states. Computer models currently in use do not allow for waves of such magnitude. Moreover, the data suggests that these large, rogue waves may be more common than previously believed.
The crew of the RRS Discovery went to sea expecting bad weather. In fact, the weather forecast had predicted a particularly violent storm, which the scientists wanted to observe firsthand. The experience exceeded their wildest imagination, and when it was all said and done, they were lucky to have survived the ordeal.
The vessel was rocked by entire sets of waves, some of which were measured to be as high as 30 meters (98 feet) by the recording instruments. The onslaught continued for about 12 hours, leaving a stunned and badly shaken research team.
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. She can be reached at cristy-fry@excite.com.
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