COMMERCE
Subscriber Services
Classified Ads
Subscribe
Advertise
NEWS
This Month
Editorial
Letters
Past Issues
ABOUT US
Masthead
Latest Issue
Subscribe
History
MORE CONTENT
CFN Archives
Links
Each Month In CFN
Along the Coast
Ask the Lobster Doc
Bearin’s
Classifieds
Coming Events
Editorial
Enforcement Report
FISH SAFE
Fleet Additions
Letters
Lobster Market Report
McKinley
New Boats
News Catch
Quahog Market Report
|
Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 32 Number 7
March 2005
Safety training basics:
New Bedford to offer no-cost workshop
NEW BEDFORD, MA - Every fishing vessel crewman who calls New Bedford home or who works out of the port will have the opportunity to get free basic safety training this spring.
The Mayor’s Seafood Industry Advisory Task Force has scheduled four convenient Friday and Saturday training sessions over a three-month period beginning in April. Each session will be a combination of classroom instruction, outdoor practice, and in-the-water drills led by certified instructors.
“This is basic training for everyone,” said Rodney Avila of the New Bedford Harbor Development Commission, “from putting on survival suits to lighting flares to getting into a life raft and even making mayday calls.”
The mayor’s task force is offering the training workshops in partnership with the city of New Bedford, which has committed $50,000 to fund the program, and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST), with financial support from the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The training will take place at the SMAST facility in New Bedford. The Coast Guard has agreed to provide a helicopter to assist, Avila said.
Specifically, the workshops will cover: fire fighting; flooding damage control; air rescue; air-dropped P-6 pumps; igniting flares; donning immersion suits; deploying life rafts; man-overboard response and rescue; and abandon ship procedures.
Don’t rely on luck
Avila, who bought his first boat in 1957 and fished for the next four decades, stressed that everyone – even experienced fishermen – should take this training.
“I’ve had people tell me, ‘I’ve fished for 40 years, I don’t need it,’” he said. “I say, ‘Then you’ve been lucky for 40 years.’”
The workshop dates are: April 15-16; May 6-7; May 27-28; and June 17-18.
“It’s free,” Avila said. “Take advantage of it. Be prepared.”
To sign up or for more information, stop in at the New Bedford Harbor Development Commission Office at 106 Co-Op Wharf in New Bedford, or call (508) 961-3000.
Back to story list
|
|
Tell us what you think.
