Category: Safety

FISH SAFE – Caring for PFDs: Inspecting, rearming, and storing

Do you have a new personal flotation device (PFD) or lifejacket?  Are you readying your present PFD gear for spring and summer fishing? Lend an ear. Here are some tips to help ensure that your PFD, which we hope you are wearing every time you are on the water, will be able to function as …

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Fish Safe – Good news for safety training programs in the region

Although it is still plenty cold along the East Coast, fishermen and the organizations that serve them are starting off 2021 with good news on the funding front and an impressive choice of safety trainings to attend. On Jan. 1, Congress overrode President Donald Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY21 which …

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FISH-SAFE: The mayday distress call – Where it originated, when to use it, and when not to

Before the mayday distress call existed, that is before the radio as we know it was in use, telegraph operators used the Morse Code signal — three dots, three dashes, three dots — to communicate distress.  The sound of the tapped dots and dashes are often expressed as dih, dih, dih, dah, dah, dah, dih, …

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FISH SAFE: Pandemic stress is real, but fishermen finding ways  to cope, survive, push forward through COVID-19

We can always count on the fact that the full moon of August, the Sturgeon Moon, will give way to the full moon of September, the Corn Moon. It happens every year with astronomical consistency in the heavens. But here in 2020, on earth versus the heavens, any consistency we expected in past years – …

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FISH-SAFE: Fishing industry during COVID-19: Essential, but paralyzed?

What do you do when your industry is categorized “essential” — along with agriculture, pharmacies, grocery stores, manufacturing, and hospitals — but your supply chain is disrupted? You adapt.  Something that fishermen here are good at, though no one has ever seen anything quite like this. On Mar. 15, Gov. Janet Mills of Maine declared …

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FISH SAFE: Situational awareness and confined space hazards

Let’s start with situational awareness. It is my sense that most fishermen either naturally have, or seem to develop, excellent situational awareness skills. They have keen eyes and ears for non-normal situations – whether it be a change in the sound of their boat engine, the sense that another vessel is approaching through the fog, …

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A look back at 2018 Coast Guard casualty responses

Last year, for the Maine Fishermen’s Forum issue (see CFN Mar. 2018), I dug into the Coast Guard Division I database for information on the casualties to which the Coast Guard responded. I thought I would do the same thing this year for comparison. Once again this article will focus on the medico and medevac …

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USCG issues safety alert regarding potential radio frequency interference from LED lights

It sometimes seems that as new products for fishermen/boat owners come to market, we discover unexpected limitations, side-effects, or the need for work-arounds. This appears to be the case with some LED lights, a product that has become increasingly ubiquitous on many fishing boats.  Some LEDs, it seems, have been found to emit radio frequency …

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Refinishing your boat this winter? Check this out.

Well, the holidays are upon us and for some fishermen who don’t fish in the winter, some downtime, so to speak. Or, perhaps we should just call it a change in the work routine rather than downtime. Are you, or someone you know planning to repaint or refinish your boat this winter? Or perhaps you’re …

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Two fires: Good news — all rescued uninjured

[pullquote align=”left|center|right” textalign=”left|center|right” width=”30%”]In the Northeast, from 2010-2014, there were 109 vessel casualties.  Of those, 16 (15%) were categorized as fires or explosions and none was fatal.[/pullquote] It is worth drawing attention from time to time to events that may result in a vessel casualty on the one hand, but end with the good news …

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