FEATURE
SAFETY AT SEA
STAYING SAFE IN THE BAY Bristol Bay captains practice what they preach to turn drills into muscle memory By Brian Hagenbuch
t seems like every season, while in the midst of the relentless excitement and exhaustion of the Bristol Bay salmon run, we get that crushing news. Someone has gone overboard and disappeared. It is heartbreaking, and it follows us from our bunks to the deck, from the boatyard to the bar, and back home. According to NIOSH, the bay averaged a little over a death a year between 2000 and 2018. The leading cause was falls overboard from gillnet boats, with capsized setnet skiffs the second worst cause. It is more difficult to find data on injuries, but anyone who fishes Bristol Bay knows how common they are. Near misses, meanwhile, are a daily occurrence, and many of these come up short of tragedy because of the safety precautions fishermen take. Most of us abide by the Coast Guard safety regulations: equipping our boats with certified and up-to-date life rafts, EPIRBs, flares, survival suits (don’t forget to wax those zippers), and life rings (make sure there’s enough line here). But safety goes far beyond just fulfilling regulatory requirements. There are refrains among safety-conscious veteran skippers, and one of them is to internalize safe practices on the water. This is done a number of ways, chief among them: organization. Michael Jackson, a Bristol Bay veteran of 34 years, stays organized with checklists detailing gear and protocols for both preseason and in-season.
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24 National Fisherman \ July 2021
Jackson keeps several nonregulated safety items, like an affordable 500-pound game hoist that can be used for man-overboard retrieval, and an emergency ditch bag, a dry bag for kayaking that includes a handheld VHF, an EPIRB, flares, and a first-aid kit. Dan Barr, a 40-year skipper, is big on contingency. He has 10 bilge pumps powered by three different sources: engine, hydraulics or hand. Barr also keeps a backup VHF that automatically reverts to Channel 16 for distress alerting. For night fishing, Barr drops twin jacklights overboard, and preseason he refreshes reflective tape on his hull to increase visibility. Delivering and anchoring heighten manoverboard danger. Both Barr and Jackson have PFD policies for anyone going to the bow of the boat. Barr requires PFDs on the bow at night, while Jackson requires them anytime crew is on the bow. Jackson stocks Mustang Survival horse-collar jackets that inflate on contact with the water, while Barr keeps inflatables and the Kent Rogue vest, which is not Coast Guard approved but can buy time in the water. Jerry Dzugan, a nationally recognized leader at the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association, has been on a push to get bay fishermen to use some type of flotation for years. An AMSEA study that provided Kent Rogue vests and Stormline flotation bibs found that, provided with a good, unobtrusive option, 91 percent of fishermen used flotation. Robust, waterproof flashlights — which proved to be lifesavers in the Scandies www.nationalfisherman.com
