As the fishing season ramps up, so does vexation with a federal requirement that people wear face masks on commercial fishing vessels, part of the CDC’s guidelines on mask wearing on public transportation to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
Joe Trotter has fished in Bristol Bay for 13 years, in Egegik on the East Side of the bay. He strongly disagrees with the federal rule that would require people on commercial vessels to wear face masks to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
“I think it’s ridiculous that they’re asking us to wear masks,” he said.
Trotter’s crewmembers on the F/V Seahag will all be vaccinated, and he said that since they don’t come into contact with anyone else during the season, spreading the virus to others isn’t really a possibility.
“If you go into shore, or you go into Dillingham, you go into Naknek, if you go on land somewhere, yeah, OK. But requiring us to have a mask on our fishing boat while we’re fishing? No. That’s ridiculous," he said. "I’m not going to have my crew do that. It’s a safety issue, if nothing else.”
But he’s up against the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Coast Guard.
Both agencies say crew on commercial fishing vessels need to wear a face mask.
The Coast Guard says crew members can take off their face masks for specific tasks, if it’s unsafe to be wearing them, but when they’re done they have to put the masks right back on.
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski is frustrated by the rules.
At a recent Senate hearing, she said she worries fishing crews will be more concerned about the liability of noncompliance with the mask requirement rather than their immediate safety.
“This is more a safety hazard than anything out — you’re out on a boat, the winds are howling, your mask is soggy wet. Tell me. Tell me how anyone thinks this is a sane and a sound policy to do.”
This week Murkowski and New Hampshire Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan wrote a letter to the CDC and Coast Guard asking them to work together to exempt commercial fishers from the mask requirement.
They pointed out that the CDC has loosened its recommendations for fully-vaccinated people in general, but not commercial fishing crews.
The CDC has lumped commercial fishing vessels in with all other forms of public transportation where face masks are required.
Murkowski and Hassan said they support masking on public transportation like planes, trains and buses, but commercial fishing vessels are different.
Trotter, the Egegik fisher, agrees.
“Most of the time we can’t hear each other on the boat, and we read lips or facial expressions,” he said. “It’s kind of important to have that on the boat for communication, for safety. And when you can’t hear what they’re saying, facial expressions are important.”
According to the letter, the Coast Guard told the senators it couldn't change its mask requirements until the CDC changed its order. The CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday about if it had plans to change the rules.
The mask rules do come with penalties. According to the Coast Guard, repeated failure to comply could result in “civil and/or criminal enforcement action.”
In an email, Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Kurt Fredrickson said, “We will be checking for compliance during the course of regular business." But they won’t deploy separate teams to check for face masks.
Contact the author at izzy@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200.
