emergency drills

[plugginpete]

How many people have been on charters where they conduct emergency drills before leaving the dock?


Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 6
February 2006

Editorial
Safety drills: Conduct one before every trip

At the end of its report on the sinking of the Northern Edge, the Coast Guard offered a lengthy list of recommendations, which basically entailed having the agency acquire authority to force commercial fishermen to take more steps to save their own lives.

That’s because the investigators concluded that even though the Northern Edge was a well-maintained boat with a conscientious owner and a respected, experienced captain, crewmen might have lived if additional safety-oriented actions had taken place.

For all of its strengths, however, we know that the Coast Guard has trouble making even important statutory and regulatory changes in a timely manner. Cumbersome procedural requirements and lengthy review policies mean that it can take years – literally years and years – before critical changes are made.

The Northern Edge recommendations are themselves an example of this. It is notable that the investigators based their recommendations almost entirely on those made seven years ago by the Coast Guard’s Fishing Vessel Casualty Task Force in its report titled “Living to Fish, Dying to Fish,” which was published in 1999. Also, the Coast Guard said it intended to publish a proposed rule in July 2005 to require mandatory logging of already required drills. But this proposal still isn’t ready, and the latest estimate for a publication date is summer 2006.

So if the Coast Guard can’t put regulations in place to effectively enforce existing safety rules like mandatory drills, what are we to do?

The city of New Bedford, the National Marine Fisheries Service, fishermen’s associations, and Coast Guard stations around the region responded to the Northern Edge tragedy by stepping up to offer safety training. Hundreds of fishermen have done their part by participating in this training to learn how to don a survival suit, open and board a life raft, and fight a fire.

But there is still the matter of drills. You can have the safety equipment on board and, hopefully, readily accessible; some crewmembers can know how to use it. But if everyone isn’t assigned a station and trained to know his responsibilities, everyone is at deadly risk in an emergency.

The Coast Guard investigation into the Northern Edge sinking estimates that the crew had five to 10 minutes to respond to the crisis after it began.

The narrative describing the final moments of the scalloper and the five crewmen who died is haunting. Every man did what he thought made sense but few of their actions did anything to help their situation.

Whose job is it to make sure that everyone on board knows what to do in the case of an emergency?

Should insurance companies require vessel owners to provide proof that mandatory safety drills are conducted on a routine basis and impose sanctions on policyholders who fail to do so?

We think it makes more sense for vessel owners to adopt a rule themselves. Before your boat leaves port, require everyone on board to take 15 minutes and conduct a safety drill.

The tragedy of the Northern Edge has taught us that when disaster strikes, the crew can’t get together and talk about what to do. Assigning emergency stations and conducting regular, frequent drills can make the difference between life and death.

[strikezone31]

I've never been on a charter where they have done actual drills.