Tag Archives: safety compliance check program

U.S. Coast Guard Works to Make BSAI Crab Fishery Catch Less Deadly in 2021

Within the commercial crab fishing fleet of Alaska’s Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) sail some of the most widely admired and respected fishermen on earth. The BSAI crab fishery was widely considered the most hazardous U.S. commercial fishery in the 1990s after 73 fishing-related fatalities.,, laws did not address the problem of overloading vessels with crab pots, a major cause of vessel disasters and deaths. This gap in safety regulations was partially corrected by the Coast Guard in 1999 with the introduction of a dockside stability and safety compliance check program.,, Recent tragedies in these fisheries have shed light on just how important stability checks are for the fishing fleet. F/V Destination and F/V Scandies Rose sank in February 2017, and New Year’s Eve 2019, respectively, claiming the lives of 11 fishermen. >click to read< 22:50