In the wake of several recent fishing deaths in Maine, the state and nonprofit groups have been expanding their efforts to train and protect commercial fishermen.
A new nonprofit was recently started to help prevent accidents, and lawmakers recently created a commercial safety fund. Last month, the state’s first Commercial Fishing Remembrance Day was held to commemorate those who have died at sea.
At a safety training Monday in Bucksport for commercial fishermen, lobstermen from across the state said they aren’t typically worried about their safety at work but had learned new things about preparing for and surviving emergencies.
Dylan Silverthorne, who lives on Cliff Island in Casco Bay and has been a sternman on a lobster boat since 2011, said his captain sent him to the training; he’ll be able to use it to educate others on the island, too.
“The last maritime emergency I was in, I was lucky,” he said, without elaborating. “Now I need to be trained.”
The fishing vessel drill conductor training class also qualifies students to lead monthly emergency drills in their own areas that are required by the U.S. Coast Guard. Injuries and fatalities in commercial fishing dropped by nearly 80 percent after national entities started funding safety training in 1985, according to National Fisherman.
In Maine, the Department of Marine Resources, Commercial Fishing Safety Council and the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries all have led a new push for safety on commercial vessels.
Within the last year, a new nonprofit has launched to expand access to safety training, equipment and accident response: Green and White Hope, named for 18-year-old lobsterman Tylar Michaud, who died two years ago after falling off his boat near Petit Manan Point. A new fund for safety and search and rescue also passed the Legislature this year in memory of Chester and Aaron Barrett, a father-and-son scalloping duo that died at sea while moving their boat between ports in January.
At Monday’s training, 14 fishermen learned the phases of living through an emergency aboard a ship: abandonment, survival and rescue.
They practiced making mayday calls to the Coast Guard and learned how and where to use pyrotechnic flares. A trip to the local Silver Lake boat launch taught them how to put on survival suits, float and move in them using the inflatable air bladders, deploy a life raft and get safely onto a rescue boat.
“You can have all the equipment on board, but if you don’t know how to use it, it’s pointless,” said Caleb Hardie, a third-generation lobsterman from Stonington who’s working as a sternman and attended the class for the requirements of his apprenticeship. He learned to use the life raft for the first time in the class.
Instructor John McMillan said he has seen more interest in the events recently; he’s taught these classes since 2007 and has been a fishing safety instructor for decades.
In addition to training, he urges fishermen to use survival strategies such as sharing a “float plan” of their itinerary with someone onshore, a “personal locating beacon” to send satellite signals of their location and a kill switch for the boat’s motor. Those are especially important measures for people fishing alone, he said.
All should carry handwarmers, a lighter with a candle to start a fire and should always wear life jackets — most who drown were not wearing them, he said.
“Water is my friend. I will survive,” McMillan led fishermen in a call-and-response chant as they floated on their backs in Silver Lake, buoyed by their survival suits. “I’ve been trained.”
Past accidents and uncertainties about the fishery’s future don’t appear to deter the newest generation of Maine lobstermen.
Colby Beal, 18, and Josh Ward, 17, attended the training for their student license requirements. Both said they feel comfortable on the water. For Beal, who fishes from Milbridge with his family, there are always other boats around to help. He’s come close to sinking a few times, he said, but was quickly rescued.
The teenagers have learned to watch out for ropes on the deck, they said, and faced smaller injuries such as when Ward, who fishes from South Bristol, got his thumb crushed on the job. For both, the work runs in the family; they like being outside, and it’s good money.
The fishing is good right now too for Hardie, the lobsterman from Stonington. He feels safe as long as the water isn’t rough, but said he felt a lot more safe after the training and is glad the course is a license requirement.
While the recent accidents didn’t happen near Stonington, he said fishermen across the state always feel for the families and contribute to their fundraisers.
Carter Moorman, a 14-year-old from Thomaston who has his own boat, attended the training with his uncle to help him get his license and said he learned a lot he never knew. He doesn’t worry about his safety working close to shore either, except for when large yachts from a nearby boatyard cut close by.
Moorman said it’s a fairly simple job that he wants to make a career out of. It seems stable, and lately he’s been hauling up to 270 pounds a day.
“You’ve just gotta learn what to do and how to do it,” he said.
