Salmon Bounce Back, Season Prospects Good Fishermen having mixed results so far

By Terry Dillman

The 2012 commercial salmon season has weighed anchor, and prospects look good along the Washington, Oregon and California coasts.

Nancy Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Oregon Salmon Commission, said she has heard that fishermen venturing out between bouts of poor weather are “doing well,” particularly out of Newport, but also from Coos Bay. She’s “not hearing much” from the south coast, but fishermen out of Astoria “are landing some fish.”

In mid-April, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission and the California Department of Fish and Game set the 2012 ocean fishing season for salmon for their respective state’s territorial waters extending three miles from the shoreline. They mirror regulations adopted by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) the first week of April.

Salmon fisheries in California and Oregon looked particularly promising, due primarily to good river conditions, and excellent ocean conditions, for salmon. Sacramento, Klamath, and Rogue River Chinook returns are expected to be significantly higher than during the past several years, and Oregon Coast coho also have a strong forecast; however, fishery alternatives are necessarily constrained to protect Endangered Species Act-listed Sacramento River winter Chinook and Columbia River coho stocks. North of Cape Falcon, returns look similar to last year.

Idled for most of the past six years, Oregon’s commercial salmon fishermen face the possibility of a much-improved 2012 salmon season.

Encouraged by predictions of plentiful overall salmon returns, the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) on Wednesday announced three alternatives for managing salmon fisheries. The PFMC recommends management measures for fisheries off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California. Officials say salmon fisheries in Oregon and California “look particularly promising,” thanks to good river conditions and excellent ocean conditions for salmon.

Fishery managers expect chinook returns in the Sacramento, Klamath and Rogue rivers at “significantly higher” levels than the past several years, and the Oregon coast coho forecast is also strong.

There is a caveat: fishery alternatives are, they noted, “necessarily constrained” to protect Sacramento river chinook and Columbia river coho stocks on the endangered species list. Still, Dan Woldford, PFMC chairman, noted the “nice rebound for California salmon populations and the prospect of good fishing in 2012.”

To the North
Fisheries north of Cape Falcon are expected to emulate last season, with an Oregon coho forecast of 632,700 fish – about equal to 2011. Although Columbia River hatchery coho returns were bigger than expected in 2011, fishery managers say they were still below average. Meanwhile, Columbia River chinook returns were generally lower than expected last year, but above historical averages.

Biologists anticipate about 742,5000 summer and fall chinook to return to the Columbia River compared to last year’s actual return of 684,400. The 2012 forecasts for the river’s tule chinook are “mixed, but overall above average.” Hatchery coho forecasts are slightly lower than 2011, while those for Oregon coastal natural coho is similar to last year’s actual return and “the highest forecast since 1996.”

Washington coast coho forecasts are “generally higher” than 2011, but generally lower for Puget Sound.

The ocean sport fishery alternatives north of Cape Falcon in Oregon and off the Washington coast offer seasons akin to last year, with mark-selective coho quotas ranging from 54,600 to 71,400 (2011 quote of marked coho was 67,200) starting in late June and lasting into September. Chinook quotas are 35,500 to 51,500 (compared to last year’s quota of 64,600). Two alternatives feature a mark-selective chinook fishery in June.

Commercial salmon fishery alternatives north of Cape Falcon feature traditional Chinook seasons between May and September.

Quotas for all areas and times range from 32,500 to 47,500 – higher than the 2011 quota of 30,900. Marked coho quotas are 10,400 to 13,600, compared to last year’s 12,800.

Chinook and coho quotas for tribal ocean fishery alternatives are 40,000 to 55,000. Last year’s quotas were 41,000 and 42,000, respectively.

To the South
“Biologists are forecasting four times more salmon than last year in the Klamath River, and an astounding 15 times more than in 2006,” noted Jennifer Gilden, PFMC’s communications officer.
Biologists estimate the ocean salmon population at 1.6 million adult Klamath River fall chinook, well above last year’s 371,100. That estimate derives mainly from the 85,840 two-year-old salmon (jacks) that returned to the river in 2011. “This is the highest of jacks to return since at least 1978, when recordkeeping began,” Gilden added.

Sacramento River stocks also show improvement, with a “conservative” forecast of 819,400 fall chinook, up from last year’s 729,000. Biologists expect at least 436,000 adult spawners in the river system. The 2012 annual catch limit is at least 245,820 spawners.

“These returns are particularly important when seen in the context of the last several years,” noted Gilden. “Klamath and Sacramento stocks drive ocean fishing seasons off California and Oregon.”

On the Money
Despite the optimism, commercial fishermen might not expect a silver lining in the black cloud that has hung over them for the past several seasons as they watched their livelihoods shrink to almost nil.
After a poor 2005 season, a federally-declared disaster in 2006, a well-below-average catch in 2007, another federally-declared disaster in 2008, a basically non-existent 2009 season, a somewhat improved, yet quite limited season in 2010, and a disappointing 2011, when fish were scarce, despite healthy forecasts.

“Commercial fishermen have noted that because of the series of poor years, much of the capacity to fish commercially – especially in California – has been lost,” Gilden stated.

But the best news centers on price, which Fitzpatrick deemed as “outstanding” at $6 to $7 per pound to the vessel. “Those who are going out there and are hard-charging are doing well,” she said. Still others are taking advantage of an ongoing research project, trolling for salmon and science simultaneously, gleaning data that could prevent the complete closures of salmon fishing that almost gutted the fishery itself during the past few years. The Cooperative Research on Oregon Ocean Salmon (CROOS) project is a Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station (COMES) effort based at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport.

CROOS Control
This major salmon project re-launched in May 2010 after two years of a commercial fishing shutdown is literally paying dividends in Oregon fishing communities, hooking some much-needed income for participating fishermen, and the coastal communities where they live and work. Federal disaster relief money, federal appropriations, and Saltonstall-Kennedy grants help provide the funding.

Started in 2006, the project originally focused on Oregon ‘s ocean salmon to determine where fish from specific rivers travel in the ocean, then switched to tuna as closures in 2008 and 2009 put a drag on the effort. It returned to salmon in 2010 and 2011 with full sampling seasons and a program expansion.

In 2010, Oregon State University (OSU) researchers worked with colleagues in Washington and California, along with 200 commercial salmon fishermen (128 of them in Oregon). Project leaders say Oregon fishermen collected more than 4,500 samples.

The collaborative effort unites state-of-the-art science with traditional salmon fishing know-how.
The fishermen function as ocean researchers, collecting and recording at-sea data during salmon fishing operations, and clipping fin samples that scientists use for genetic testing. As they catch salmon, the fishermen also log the time and location using global positioning system (GPS) technology, and enter the data through the Pacific FishTrax website (www.pacificfishtrax.org). Pacific FishTrax began last year as a joint venture involving OSU, the Community Seafood Initiative (CSI), and long-time Oregon fishermen to help alleviate growing consumer concerns about food safety, quality and origins, and to allow fishermen to market a high-quality product at high-end prices.
COMES Superintendent Gil Sylvia called the effort “a great partnership between scientists and the fishing community.”

The project keeps many fishermen on the water, and the data they contribute is leading to new insights about salmon migration and behavior.

Fitzpatrick said they have 75 vessels under contract along the coast, with vessels available in Oregon, California and Washington.

“The fishermen are sharing the data voluntarily because they want to improve the science and enhance the sustainability of the resource,” Sylvia said, noting that the project provides “innovative science” leading to real-time data that “more accurately reflects reality” for fisheries management, rather than using years-old information to make decisions.

The combination of scientific research and public outreach is designed to simultaneously get the word out about Oregon’s commercial fisheries, and strengthen wild fish runs, including salmon.

Sylvia said most of the money involved goes to fishermen, the project has “a proven track record” of creating and maintaining jobs on coastal communities, could help avoid full-scale salmon closures, and is a coast-wide collaborative approach to salmon management. By incorporating collaborative research efforts into everyday fishing operations, the project takes advantage of the knowledge and experience fishermen offer, while simultaneously improving fisheries science and management.
Using genetic analysis, scientists say they can tell in near real-time the river basin from which the salmon originated, allowing managers to know whether or not the stock is considered weak under annually derived regulations. Ultimately, fisheries managers say they want to use this information in combination with other biological and oceanographic information the fishermen collect, to move the fishermen to areas of healthy stock during the season. Improved access to healthy stocks would allow commercial salmon fishermen to stay on the water and avoid the full-scale fishing closures that hurt everyone – harvesters, seafood processors, and the rural coastal communities that depend on fishing for at least part of their livelihoods.

Sampling for the 2012 season began May 1.

Fitzpatrick said the project has already produced five years of fine-scale fish distribution data and fishing effort to support long-term ecosystem-based fisheries science and management. The primary objective, she noted, is “to prevent the kind of coast-wide fishing closures that have devastated the fishery, and enhance the economic benefits to the fishery and coastal communities that depend on it.”

Terry Dillman can be reached at tdwordwright@gmail.com

Bering Sea Research Tells of Impact of Changing Ecosystem on Fisheries

A special issue of the journal Deep Sea Research II available online documents how Bering Sea fish, birds and marine mammals are changing how they eat, bear their young and make their homes in response to changes in sea ice extent and duration. The work represents newly published findings from a partnership between the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center, the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean at the University of Washington, and several other academic and federal partners.

Because Alaska waters host some of the most commercially valuable US fisheries, scientists hope that understanding the role natural and human-influenced variations in temperature, nutrients, sea ice and other factors play in the ecosystem will enable better predictions of climate impacts that affect the economy and people of the region.

Measurements made during the six-year NOAA study show a potential impact of climate change on species ranging from zooplankton to whales living on the Bering Sea shelf. The study projects warming of southern shelf waters will limit the distribution of Arctic species such as snow crab, while the distribution and abundance of whales will change as their food source moves.

An electronic fish finder on an icebreaker was used to provide the first comprehensive observation of fish in the ice-covered portion of the Bering Sea. Researchers concluded that each winter, sea ice and the cold water that comes with it force fish southeastward, out of their summer habitat. Using similar electronic fish finders mounted on NOAA Fisheries survey vessels, researchers documented a recent increase in krill, which Pollock eat, that coincided with the end of a warm period and the start of a cold period in the eastern Bering Sea.

The entire issue is online at www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09670645/65

Articles must be purchased individually online from the publication.

Togiak Herring Fishery Coming Up Short

The Togiak sac roe herring fishery, with an allowable harvest this year of 21,622 tons of herring, is so far coming up short, due to a combination of factors, from wet and windy weather in Southwest Alaska to early spawn and allocation issues.

Wind is a major issue for the gillnet fleet. If winds get up to 20-25 knots or more, it’s too dangerous for the gillnetters to fish, said Tim Sands, area management biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game at Dillingham. 

The fishery is managed for 70 percent of the catch to be taken by the seine fleet and 30 percent by gillnetters, with the harvest being processed by Icicle Seafoods, Trident Seafoods, Yardarm Knot Fisheries and North Pacific Seafoods.

The seine fleet harvested 13,084 tons of herring, or 86.4 percent of its allocation, before its fishing period ended on the evening of May 28. 

The gillnetters by then had caught 2,870 tons of herring, or 44.2 percent of their allocation.

“The gillnetters are still out there,” Sands said. “We will go into June a little bit, so they can get closer to their quota.”

The Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery in Southeast Alaska closed early on April 12, with a harvest of 13,534 tons or 47 percent of the season’s guideline harvest level of 28,829 tons. State biologists said the decision to close the fishery was based on the completion of major spawning in Sitka Sound and vessel and aerial surveys that failed to identify a biomass of pre-spawning herring in the area at that time.

Copper River Salmon Harvest Slows in Fourth Opener

Harvests of salmon Alaska’s famed Copper River have reached more than 727,000 sockeye salmon and 4,100 Chinook salmon, but slowed considerably in the 36 hour opener, the fourth of the season, which ended on May 29.

Windy, rainy conditions notwithstanding, some 350 drift gillnetters out on the grounds of the Copper River fishery were reportedly in good spirits, and one processor, speaking on condition of anonymity, said prices for the red salmon would likely rise because of a significant slowdown in the harvest in the latest opener.

The harvest total was still being calculated today, but the preliminary estimate was that about 1,000 kings and about 100,000 reds were netted in the fourth quarter.

State area gillnet manager Jeremy Botz said the sockeyes this year are averaging close to 6.5 pounds, compared with the usual weight of just under 6 pounds, while the Chinooks are coming in at their usual average weight of about 19 pounds.

Commercial harvesters caught 978 kings and 156,059 reds in the first period, 1,261 kings and 217,900 reds in the second period, and 905 kings and 253,053 reds in the third period, for a total of 5,467 kings and 451,707 reds.

Marketplace demand remained high, with the popular downtown Anchorage retailer Tenth and M Seafoods reporting heavy sales of whole kings and whole reds at $21.95 a pound and $7.50 a pound respectively during the Memorial Day holiday weekend, as well as king fillets at $29.95 a pound and red fillets at $9.95 a pound.

Restaurant entrées brought prices of $29.95 for sockeye and $39.95 for king salmon entrees at the popular Anchorage restaurant Orso.

At Seattle’s Pike Place Fish Market, whole fresh Copper River kings were $29.95 a pound, and fillets were priced at $44.99 a pound. Fresh Copper River sockeyes were $59.95 per fish and $21.99 for fillets.

Bristol Bay Fishermen Have New Marketing Website

While most of the news on wild Alaska salmon is focused for now on the famed Copper River sockeye and king salmon, hundreds of harvesters are preparing for the Bristol Bay sockeye salmon fishery opening, which opens officially on June 1.

The forecast for this year’s Bristol Bay sockeye salmon run is about 32.3 million fish, with some 21.7 million fish potentially available for harvest.

The Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association is wasting no time getting the word out to wild Alaska salmon aficionados about the high quality and good taste of their product.

The BBRSDA has launched a colorful new website, www.bristolbaysockeye.org, featuring information on the world’s largest sockeye salmon run, sustainability issues, recipes, nutritional value and stories from the Bristol Bay fish harvesters.

There are detailed instructions, with photos for preparing sockeye salmon strips, sockeye strip tacos, smoke sockeye salmon ball spreads, seared salmon with sesame vinaigrette, party platters, party sliders, sockeye caviar canapés, salmon chowder and more. The collection includes a barbecued plank sockeye salmon recipe from David Harsilla, president of the Alaska Independent Fishermen’s Marketing Association, and a veteran Bristol Bay fisherman.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reminds the commercial fleet that during the season, Bristol Bay salmon announcements are broadcast on marine VHF Channel 07A and 2509 MHz SSB. Current fishing announcements are aired on local radio stations – KAKN and KDLG. Regular announcement times that may be utilized are 9:00 a.m., 12:00 noon, 3:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m., and 8:00 p.m., unless otherwise stated. Information is also available via telephone; for east side fisheries (Naknek-Kvichak, Egegik, and Ugashik), dial 246-INFO (4636), for west side fisheries (Nushagak and Togiak) dial 842-5226. The direct line from the Dillingham boat harbor will be operational in late April and is located on the west end of the harbormaster's house.

Safe Fishing is Smart Fishing

In the wake of the Coast Guard Authorization Act, demand for safety training is skyrocketing

By Kathy A. Smith

Progressive and up-to-date safety training and equipment for commercial fishermen is critical to this most dangerous of sea-going careers. And the organizations that provide lifesaving products and services to the industry are meeting a wide variety of needs across the country.

“Our demand for commercial fishermen training is skyrocketing,” says Rick Petersen, Training Coordinator for the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association (AMSEA), a non-profit corporation that provides safety training to the commercial fishing industry as well as recreational boaters, agency personnel and school children. “It definitely has something to do with regulation changes.”

The new Coast Guard Authorization Act, which became law in October 2010, has outlined pending training regulations for commercial fishermen but it is not yet known when those regulations will come into effect. “The whole fishing industry is confused about it because it’s a law but not a written regulation that is enforceable yet, and people don’t quite know what the specific regulations are going to require,” says Jerry Dzugan, AMSEA’s Executive Director.

Petersen explains: “People are worried. For instance, in California, a lot of fishermen have heard a rumor that this law was going to be enacted on August 1st, but it’s not. They are worried that they won’t be able to make a living unless they get this training, so we did a huge push in California for training.” “There will be a phase-in period,” adds Dzugan. “There is a document on our website with both the current and future training requirements listed.”

AMSEA has taught safety training courses to fishermen around the United States for more than 25 years, and also run their acclaimed train-the-trainer course called Marine Safety Instructor Training. “We have instructors working from Alaska to American Samoa, Washington, California, the entire Gulf of Mexico, and from Florida to Maine,” says Petersen.

“We’ve doubled the number of drill conductors over last year,” adds Dzugan. “In fact, we’re getting classes with too many people in them.” Dzugan says that in order to meet present and future training requirements, there needs to be a lot more training infrastructure in the industry. “Ideally, we’d have a port-based instructor network around the US where people with a fishing background would teach their peers, and that way, the training is relevant to their fisheries and affordable and accessible because it’s local.”

Dzugan points out that though there has been a lot of improvement in survivability of vessel disasters because of survival equipment and training, there has been very little improvement in falls overboard. According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), 31 percent of the fatalities in Alaska in the past 10 years were falls overboard. “It actually runs between 25 and 50 percent, depending on the part of the country. The Gulf of Mexico has the highest number of man overboards. In fact, in the 70s and 80s, it would be typical to hear about five or six vessels lost with all hands. Now just having one vessel lost with all hands is a rather unique experience, maybe one a year.”

He notes that stability (how the shifting of weights and actions of moments affect the safety of vessels) is the cause of 50 percent of fatalities, so AMSEA is spending more time on this issue, along with damage control. “We’re offering those classes now although it’s not required yet.”

As part of AMSEA’s safety training, they’ve devised a quick checklist called Seven Steps to Survival. 

1. Recognition: recognize you’ve got a problem.
2. Inventory: what can help you, what can hurt you? 
3. Shelter: protect yourself from the elements.  
4. Signals: attract attention and ask for help.  
5. Water. 
6. Food. 
7. Play: positive mental attitude, keeping spirits up and fighting depression.

 

They also emphasize that in an emergency, staying with the boat is critical. Dzugan reports that last summer a fishing vessel working out of Yakutat, Alaska capsized crossing a river bar in good weather. There were three men aboard; one had recently taken AMSEA’s training. He stayed with the boat and survived while the other two men went off swimming and subsequently perished.

“Survival starts with staying onboard your vessel, keeping her upright and afloat and not cutting corners that increase risk,” say Julie Keim of Compass Courses in Edmonds, Washington. “With 85% of maritime incidents and injuries caused by human error, minimizing that is key.”

“We like to focus on fatigue management, safety equipment familiarization, operational equipment familiarizing and drill instructor training in many of our courses,” she says. “And all Compass Courses classes are exportable. We have delivered classes in many locations throughout the US stretching from Tampa, Florida to Alaska. We’ve even had the pleasure of delivering classes to the US Virgin Islands.”

Keim says she’s seeing an overall increase in a safety culture, that people understand it has real value and deserves focus, study and practice, noting that today’s fishermen and owners realize that safety also increases their bottom line. Additionally, she says crewmembers are more aware than ever about licensing and documentation opportunities due to the sweeping use of the Internet. For instance, she notes that their sea time, together with Compass Courses’ 4-day Lifeboatman (PSC) class and one-week AB class, along with their USCG application, enables fishermen to get their AB document. Compass Courses also delivers a two-week 100-ton class licence course that is in lieu of exam, with the US Coast Guard testing done right in the classroom.

Karen Conrad, Executive Director of the Seattle-based North Pacific Fishing Vessel Owners’ Association (NPFVOA) says: “We’ve trained more than 40,000 people to date and what I’ve noticed is every year, we’ve increased the number of people we’ve been training. That to me is a good thing.”

She says the influx comes from both pending regulation changes as well as wake-up calls. “When a catastrophic incident occurs, people get jolted into taking safety more seriously. When a vessel capsizes, people in the industry start thinking what would they do if they had to get 120 people from the ship into the water? How would they do that?”

NPFVOA has been dedicated to providing safety training courses for commercial fishermen since 1985. Among their 13 USCG-approved courses, their Medical Emergencies at Sea course is specifically designed for the industry. Based on the Red Cross CPR/First Aid curriculum, it also covers medical evacuations, hypothermia and other items specific to the maritime industry. NPFVOA also offers OSHA safety courses for crew onboard processing trawlers.

Additionally, the organization provides various non-Coast Guard certified courses such as in-the-water survival training. Conrad states: “Basically, we take anyone like processors and run them through a two-hour program where they put on the immersion suit, learn what to do in case of an emergency, and how to jump off the ship. They actually jump into the pool off a diving board and learn how to huddle up, keep together, and enter a liferaft.”

Teaching safety training that is transferable to a company’s vessel is paramount. “The first thing we do is assess the class level,” says Jon Kjaerulff, Director of Fremont Maritime in Seattle that provides training on preparing for fire, flooding, abandon ship, man overboard emergencies, and more. “We need to know if anyone has ever had any real-life emergencies, what kind of vessels they’re on, what kind of survival gear they have, how far offshore they work, how big their crew is, etc. For example, there is a really big difference in how you would train a classroom full of guys who work a four-man crew on a Bristol Bay gillnetter which is rarely more than three miles from shore as opposed to a factory trawler or processing barge that might have over 100 people on it, working hundreds of miles from shore.”

Using an up-to-date Station Bill is also critical he says. “We talk about the importance of it because it is the foundation of their response plan.” He also points out that the Station Bill may need updating for different times of the year. “Some fishing boats during one season might have four people on and at other times of the year, they might have eight,” he adds. “Making sure the Station Bill takes all of that into consideration and that the people are able to fulfill their responsibilities is very important.”

Fremont’s one and two-day survival classes incorporate many of the above classroom-taught skills and also put participants through their paces on the water. “We have them don immersion suits and tell them their first responsibility is to make sure it’s in operable condition,” explains Kjaerulff. “Then we have them put the suit back in the bag, set it up as if they are going to use it to abandon the vessel, then we launch a liferaft and go through the liferaft’s features,” he says, referring to the fact that some have the entry way on the side, some have two entry ways, and that those details can be significant in a life and death situation.

Next, a practical drill is carried out. Students put their immersion suits on, get into the water and swim 50 to 60 feet, and then have to right an upside down liferaft, climb in, get back out and swim over to a rescue boat. Kjaerulff does the in-water training in a harbor in order to make it as realistic as possible. “The act of swimming around in the harbor, seeing boats around them, getting the perspective of what it would feel like to do this for real is crucial. Typically even in a very controlled situation, participants still have problems staying together or communicating with each other. And we can say, ‘look, if you had this kind of problem on a nice day, with no seas and plenty of visibility, imagine what it could be like in other circumstances.’”

And he emphasizes that fishermen need to know what brand of immersion suit they have because each of them has a little different design, and there have been fatalities documented where someone died when most of the crew survived simply because that person had the wrong size suit. “It is the captain’s responsibility to make sure that there is a suit that fits everyone onboard.”

“The US Coast Guard recommends that survival suits are pressure tested,” says Shawn Simmons, owner of Marine Safety Services (MSS) in Seattle, a company that sells and services marine safety equipment and devices. “We’re seeing survival suits that have never been pressure tested for 10 plus years, and they look great, but when you pressure test them, you can find little leaks.” Simmons explains that different people may wear the same suits at different times during drills, and that suits stored in bags can deteriorate in ways that are not immediately recognizable to the naked eye.

“An older immersion suit is just like an old tire. They sit there, cracks are created, then leaks. In a pressure test, you’re actually seeing if all the seams and zippers are fully intact,” he says. “There are also pressure relief valves on the feet. Once you jump in the water, you have all that air that’s trapped in your survival suit. It actually purges the air out so it has somewhere to go and then it sticks to your body. Making sure those valves work properly is important, too.”

Guardian liferafts are one of MSS’ most popular items. Made by SSPI, the Guardian raft has a double floor, a double canopy, a non-puncture boarding ramp, zipper doors, an LED strobe light that blinks on the exterior as well as an internal LED light. “The old school lighting system wasn’t the greatest, whereas this blinking strobe light is a lot more visible. And that’s really important when it’s 2 o’clock in the morning with 30-foot waves and you’re trying to see something,” Simmons says. Liferafts for 10 people and below have one entryway and portholes enough for all. For 10 people and above, there are dual entryways.

Simmons is also finding a lot of customer demand in EPIRBs with internal GPS. “When an internal GPS goes off, it keeps updating and pinpointing the location within a hundred feet, which is much better than a standard unit.”

DBC Marine Safety Systems Ltd. carries a variety of liferafts and rescue boats. In business for more than 30 years, they manufacture their own brand at their Richmond, BC-based facility and also distribute Zodiac Liferafts and SOLAS-approved boats to commercial fishing clients across North America. Sales Manager Mark Hansen says that he sees the marine industry overall putting more emphasis on safety, but he also knows there are still some commercial fishermen who don’t put liferafts on their boats. “It’s an unfortunate reality.”

A future change in extending the servicing interval for liferafts is coming, according to Hansen. “Right now, liferafts have to be serviced on an annual basis, which can be costly, especially to those who work in remote areas, because of the cost of shipping the liferaft away to be serviced.” he says. “When the Coast Guard makes the certification change – and we don’t know when that will be yet – this product will allow servicing intervals to be extended to two and a half years.”

Rain gear is another critical piece of must-have safety equipment. A relatively new rain gear product for commercial fishermen has been gaining attention. The Regatta Fisherman’s Oilskins, distributed by Seattle-based Global Marine Safety (GMS), have the traditional style bibs and a jacket, but the unique difference is the bibs have flotation built into the chest and back.

This product, designed by fishermen for fishermen, has been on the global market for about six years and was introduced to the US market back in 2009 by GMS. Owner Mike Brockmann says it has been a challenge to get fishermen to try something new but the industry is really drawn to the safety feature of the product. The Fisherman’s Oilskins were involved in a 2009 PFD study conducted by NIOSH and received high performance marks from a number of fishing groups, and most specifically the Bristol Bay gillnetters.

“The whole idea of building the flotation into the rain gear that they wear on a daily basis is pretty novel,” he explains. “Wearing anything new takes getting used to, but once we get fishermen into the bibs with flotation, they love it. And the fishermen’s wives love it, too. They think it’s a fantastic idea because they know their husbands are wearing their Regatta bibs, so they’ve essentially got their lifejacket on.”

GMS also carries a line of commercial-grade jackets like the parka-length Harbor Float jacket which has tape-sealed seams that make it waterproof, and the closed cell foam flotation is quilted into the lining of the jacket, making it easier to wear than the traditional bulkier float jackets. “A lot of fishing captains and dock workers like them because not only does it float you, it’s comfortable and keeps you warm and dry,” says Brockmann. “Wearing a product like this, whether it’s a Regatta product or any safety product, it’s smart fishing. If you fish smart, you fish longer. If we can get fishermen and women into wearing safety gear while they’re working, we’re going to have a lot fewer casualties, and ultimately that’s our goal.”

American Seafoods Company’s safety culture is strongly in place. “Our goal is to create the safest possible work environment for our employees and have all of our workers confident in their ability to address and correctly respond to any threat to personal safety on board our vessels,” says R. Alan Davis, Safety and Compliance Manager.

The Seattle-headquartered company believes in continuous safety training, the execution of effective up-to-date safety plans, an open door approach to hearing employee’s safety concerns, and correctly implementing safety policies that meet or exceed regulations. Davis says last October, new changes were made to the Lockout Tags PLUS regulations, which have expanded requirements for the control of hazardous energy such as electricity, fuel and hydraulic pressures. “These include important safeguards to prevent accidental ‘start-up’ of powered machinery where workers are in positions where they could be harmed.”

Additionally, he notes that the commercial fishing sector of the industry has developed several safety initiatives that have made their way into regulatory requirements. “We are pleased that our sector could provide this sort of ‘working laboratory’ for the development of safety equipment and practices that have been more broadly implemented across the maritime industry.”

It’s clear that safety training and equipment is a vital part of the commercial fishing industry, and the better prepared workers are, the better the outcome will be, should disaster strike. “All decisions are made in the wheelhouse,” adds Dzugan. “So the better you can train that person in the wheelhouse to make better decisions, the less risk there is to all.”

Reactions Keep Coming on Bristol Bay Watershed Draft Report

A US Environmental Protection Agency draft assessment of the Bristol Bay watershed, which concludes that large-scale mining operations would harm wild salmon habitat, is continuing to get a cross-section of praise and criticism.

While the EPA says the 339-page document is focused on a hypothetical mining scenario using available public documents, its focus is clearly on evaluating what might happen if a large-scale mine, such as the Pebble mine in the exploration phase at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, is developed. 

A brief excerpt from the report’s abstract says, “Based on this mine scenario, we conclude that, at a minimum, mining at this scale would cause the loss of spawning habitat for multiple species of anadromous and resident fish.”

The study was undertaken at the request of tribal groups, environmentalists and several entities engaged in the commercial salmon fishery, which produce nearly half of the world’s sockeye salmon. They want the EPA to invoke a section of the Clean Water Act to protect fishing habitat.

On the other side, the Pebble Partnership, owned by Northern Dynasty Minerals of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Anglo American plc, of London, has found allies in the state of Alaska and others, including a group called Truth About Pebble, who feel the mine should proceed to permitting. On May 15 the company announced plans to spend some $107 million of Anglo American’s money this year to prepare the project for permitting by year’s end. 

Pebble Partnership CEO John Shively issued a statement expressing concern that the EPA “may use this rushed process as the basis for an unprecedented regulatory action against the Pebble Project… Until we complete our work and submit an application under NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) the EPA’s work as it relates to our project is based entirely on speculation,” he said.

The project has the support of a nonprofit citizens’ organization called Truth About Pebble, whose incorporators include Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan.

The eclectic group of opponents of the mine range from commercial and sport fishing groups nationwide to Alaska Native tribal groups and environmental organizations, including the National Parks Conservation Association.

“The science exists now to show that the proposed Pebble mine does not fit with a sustainable future for Bristol Bay, and should not be allowed to proceed,” said Jason Metrokin, president and chief executive officer of the Bristol Bay Native Corp.

Congress is also weighing in.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-WA, called the draft document an important step toward protecting wild Bristol Bay salmon and the thousands of Washington state jobs that rely on them.

Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, meanwhile issued a statement saying he remains opposed to any preemptive decision on the mine.

The draft document can be downloaded at www.epa.gov/bristolbay