NYT Magazine: A Speck In The Sea

Good read if you have the time. Montauk Fisherman went overboard back in July off Long Island and was rescued after spending 12 hours in the water.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/magazine/a-speck-in-the-sea.html

Enjoyed it. Thanks for posting!

Thank you for posting this.

In my 30 some years of working on and around commercial vessels of all sizes I have had some run ins with the CG that did not put them in a favorable light in my eyes. BUT and I mean BUT I have nothing but admiration for those in SAR. These men and women really are something to be proud of and I will never stand for anyone putting them down. Hats Off to the U.S.C.G. SAR Members for a Job Well Down.

As for the Fisherman, I am not sure that I could have done what he did and the fact that he kept his cool is probably one of the biggest thing that saved his life.

A friend of mine has a son with USCG SAR on the east coast. Can’t thank those guys enough, it’s good to know they are out there.

Mario Vittone just wrote an interesting article about this… “Trying Very Hard To Die: The Preventable Disease in Commercial Fishing” http://gcaptain.com/trying-very-hard-to-die/

Great to see an article that stresses personal responsibility instead of a knee-jerk call for more federal regulations after each and every preventable accident.

[QUOTE=50thState;127580]Great to see an article that stresses personal responsibility instead of a knee-jerk call for more federal regulations after each and every preventable accident.[/QUOTE]

Good article in some respects, but "Trying to die . . . " is way way over the top.

The story is about a guy who fell off a lobster boat, probably a relatively small lobster boat, but the photo in the article shows a 100’ dragger with built up bulwarks. The author apparently doesn’t know the difference between a lobsterboat and a dragger.

The article makes some good common safety sense suggestions, but . . . this is another article written by someone who’s never done a day of commercial fishing in his entire life, and who doesn’t have a clue. His only seagoing experience was in the vastly over crewed and cost is no object USCG. That’s a very peculiar and limited perspective. The USCG never has to worry producing producing any revenue, except when some admiral is letting some Congressman win on the golf course… Meanwhile commercial fishermen are out there working their asses off trying to make a living and pay the taxes that fund the USCG.

Particularly laughable, are suggestions like" never work on deck alone," or “never work on deck on autopilot.” These are nice suggestions, but . . . . there are a great many fishing boats where one man is the entire crew. Its also pretty common to have everyone else (often just one other guy) in the bunk getting a nap, and one guy up working alone.

I wouldn’t know how they do things in the back of a CG helicopter, but I’ve done a little lobstering.

I liked Mario’s article. He seems to be a little over the top but I certainly agree with him. What’s to hate about PLBs, life jackets, and sleep. Hell I’m no Commercial fisherman but the way I see it how can you even keep a ‘proper’ lookout if no ones at the helm. It always seems to me that the fishing fleets do things that are technically illegal all the time but no one really cares about calling them out on it.

The government has made it unprofitable to do things “safely” in many cases on small fishing boats. Not talking corporate greed size profits here, I mean pay the mortgage and college tuition type profits, aka make a living. Many hacks and jokers doing things very dangerously is inexcusable however, but sometimes going single handed is the only way unless you have someone willing to work for free.

My biggest thing to take away from the article is life jackets and PLB’s. I used to do a lot of sea kayak guiding and pretty much lived in a good fitting high end type three vest. Cost about 200 bucks new, went through one every season or two between when I started helping out in 5th grade till I was on of the head instructors in college. Why not wear one? Again the cost for a PLB is minimal if you are fishing offshore at night, and alone on deck.

Will we ever get the majority of the fishing fleet to stand proper watches and the like? Not likely, unless we want to pay $50/pound for lobster that is.

You don’t feel vastly over crewed when you ride the hoist down, or jump from a 15 ft hover…

WTF?
I am very frequently the only person on deck. I wear a PFD of some kind and have a radio on my belt or in my pocket. The total investment here is under $500 and that is top-line Spinlock gear and a nice radio. If I fall in I can get picked up and put back on the boat more than likely.
Are fisherman so very different that they can’t even get a $50 PFD and a $100 radio?

Part One of the much better article recently posted in another thread says that the boat was a typical 45’ lobsterboat with an open stern. It had a three man crew. The other two guys were in their bunks.

The man was not really “working on deck,” he just stepped out on deck for a minute to do a small task. That’s often when shit happens. Its the little routine things that can unexpectedly bite you. This is an important lesson for all of us.

I’ve never been a fan of open sterns. The great majority of lobsterboats do not have them. However, they are standard in some areas where virtually every boat has them. The safety precaution that was lacking here was the failure to have a temporary preventer across the open stern (such as a piece of fish net) while they were steaming to keep people and things from slipping overboard. That is the primary lesson that should be taken from this incident. Its a lot more important to keep people onboard in the first place.

How many lobstermen have you seen wearing a life jacket? I’ve never seen one. Not one ever. There must be some reason why? Maybe it just isn’t practical to work in them? They aren’t out yachting with little to do except model a life jacket while they hold the wheel with one hand and a beer with the other. They aren’t just going through the motions of safely chipping and painting as little as possible until their watch is over. Would it be possible for fishermen to wear an inflatable PFD, or a thin form fitting foam PFD? Maybe so, at least sometimes, especially if it were easy to clean the bait off it.

There is a big difference between a real career fisherman, and some guy who isn’t really a fisherman but is just doing it for the money until he can afford to do something else. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that real fishermen are not experienced professional mariners. Most of them are.

As far as the wearing PFD issue, I really can’t see a real argument against it. I’ve spent days living in a nice well fitting type three/five life jackets like the kokatat guide

http://kokatat.com/activity/sea-kayaking/guide-pfd.html

It’s slim, has a great radio pocket, a good glove pocket, very comfortable and rugged as hell. You can even leave the rescue belt in and use it to clip in on deck, not as good as a real harness, but good enough for most uses. Costs about $200 bucks, I got a year to two out off it working on deck on a tug and teaching kayaking. I still wear one of these vests when I work on deck.

the ronin is another very comfortable vest, no radio pocket though.
http://kokatat.com/activity/sea-kayaking/ronin-pfd.html

[QUOTE=Traitor Yankee;127760]As far as the wearing PFD issue, I really can’t see a real argument against it. I’ve spent days living in a nice well fitting type three/five life jackets like the kokatat guide

http://kokatat.com/activity/sea-kayaking/guide-pfd.html

It’s slim, has a great radio pocket, a good glove pocket, very comfortable and rugged as hell. You can even leave the rescue belt in and use it to clip in on deck, not as good as a real harness, but good enough for most uses. Costs about $200 bucks, I got a year to two out off it working on deck on a tug and teaching kayaking. I still wear one of these vests when I work on deck.

the ronin is another very comfortable vest, no radio pocket though.
http://kokatat.com/activity/sea-kayaking/ronin-pfd.html[/QUOTE]

That looks good. I think I’ll get one for climbing around on the barge. It would be nice to have something thinner than work vest that won’t hang up so much squeezing in between the lashing chains and the lifelines.

I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for lobstermen to start wearing them, but if they do, I might want to hold my breath once they are saturated with bait juice.

[QUOTE=Traitor Yankee;127760]As far as the wearing PFD issue, I really can’t see a real argument against it. I’ve spent days living in a nice well fitting type three/five life jackets like the kokatat guide

http://kokatat.com/activity/sea-kayaking/guide-pfd.html

It’s slim, has a great radio pocket, a good glove pocket, very comfortable and rugged as hell. You can even leave the rescue belt in and use it to clip in on deck, not as good as a real harness, but good enough for most uses. Costs about $200 bucks, I got a year to two out off it working on deck on a tug and teaching kayaking. I still wear one of these vests when I work on deck.

the ronin is another very comfortable vest, no radio pocket though.
http://kokatat.com/activity/sea-kayaking/ronin-pfd.html[/QUOTE]

Here’s another, I use this one as a kayak instructor, the only drawback to working on deck might be the pullover style:
http://www.astraldesigns.com/products/GreenJacket.php

I alos get the equivalent of about 2 years of daily use out of my PFDs.

[QUOTE=Kougar018;127481]Good read if you have the time. Montauk Fisherman went overboard back in July off Long Island and was rescued after spending 12 hours in the water.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/magazine/a-speck-in-the-sea.html[/QUOTE]

This guy grew up on the same street as me in Oakdale, NY. He’s 10 years younger than me so i didn’t know him, but I delevered the paper to his family. His parents and mine still live on the same street.

The traditional Chesapeake Bay watermen not only do not wear PFDs, they - at least back in the day - did not know how to SWIM. It was considered a waste, prolonging the agony, or thwarting God’s will :rolleyes:

As far as “yachting holding a beer in one hand”, most racing crews that are doing very hard and sometimes quite dangerous work on deck have figured out how to do it in a PFD of some kind.

No reason not to have one of these. Around $250, has a 5 year hydrostatic release and appears to be easy to clean fish guys off (polyurethane coated nylon shell)

http://www.mustangsurvival.com/professional/md3188?country=25

While in the market for top quality safety gear purchase one of these and strap it to the workvest

http://www.acrartex.com/products/catalog/personal-locator-beacons/resqlinkplus/

And for $500 you have a much better chance of rescue/survival should you end up in the water. Would be the best $500 ever spent if you ever need it. Agreed on preventing going in the water in the first place. I feel like I can not stress that enough to my crew.