With numerous fishing vessels coming into the Bristol Bay region for the yearly salmon season, an important consideration is safety. KDLG’s Chase Cavanaugh has more on how the fishermen make sure their boats and equipment are shipshape.
The United States Coast Guard recently finished inspections on 300 fishing boats in Bristol Bay. The exams are non-punitive, but are intended to help fishermen be aware of safety concerns with their boats and equipment, such as expired flares. Current safety decals also make it less likely for the vessels to have to accommodate boarding by USCG or Alaska State Troopers. Russ Hazlett is the Commercial Fishing Vessel Safety Coordinator for the Coast Guard in Anchorage. He says overall, the process went well.
“Our biggest things that people needed were documentation, state registration, some of the placards and stickers needed updating. As usual, visual distress signals, survival suits, life rings needed to be renewed, but it was a very good operation, I believe.”
In total, Hazlett’s team investigated about 20% of the 1200 vessels expected to be working in the fishery. While he says fishermen appreciated the effort, the sheer number of vessels meant a lot of work on the Coast Guard’s part.
“Probably more than 1300 boats that have to be put into the water and everyone comes up, gets them ready, and fitting time in to do the exams, with their busy schedules, sometimes seems like a pretty daunting task for the fishermen. We work long hours, we had some 12, 16 hour days working round the clock there trying to get these guys their exams that they were wantin’.”
Hazlett recommends fishermen go to fishsafe.info, as the site provides a checklist generator that can be used to find out what equipment is required on their boats for inspection.