Tag Archives: training

Training for new recruits needs to be extended says Seafish.

Simon Potten, Head of Safety and Training, discusses how local engagement and more training could be the key to making the fishing industry safer. During Maritime Safety Week (4-8 July) which was a great platform for raising national awareness of safety in the commercial fishing industry. We have been supporting Maritime Safety Week since it was started by the Department for Transport in 2018. In those five years there have been 23 deaths on commercial fishing vessels in the UK. Unfortunately, most of them came in 2021 when we tragically lost 10 fishermen. The worst year in over a decade for lives lost. Which is why I think Maritime Safety Week is more important this year than ever before. So, what can we do to make the fishing industry safer? >click to continue< 12:13

Home and Dry: Safety campaign to get fishing crews ‘Home and Dry’ following deaths in Brixham

A safety campaign has begun to reduce the ‘alarming’ number of deaths among fishing crews. It comes as more than 10% of fatalities in the fishing industry over the last decade have happened in the last six months. In the past six months, seven fishermen across the country, including two on a trawler from Brixham, have lost their lives at sea. Six of the men who died ended up in the water.  Now the industry’s safety group is launching the Home and Dry campaign aims to help those on vessels stay safe by educating them on practices they can use to reduce risks. >Video, click to read< 08:12  Shetland fisherman’s death highlighted in new man overboard prevention campaign – The lives lost included Shetland fisherman Joseph Lacaste, 45, who died while working on the trawler Copious in February. >click to read<

Massachusetts captain offers classes for aspiring fishermen

Capt. Joe Sanfilippo fished out of Gloucester for more than 20 years alongside siblings and family members. For much of that time, a seed was germinating. Sanfilippo, 46, is the youngest of five boys and his training came from tough-love, working tutorials aboard the family’s three 80-foot fishing vessels, particularly from his brother Dominic aboard the F/V Captain Gus.,, Now he is trying to pass along the very mechanics of working on a commercial fishing boat in a shoreside course called Extreme Gloucester Fishing that could serve as a template for reintroducing a new generation of fishing crew members to Gloucester’s proudest profession. >click to read< 08:39

New Zealand: A boost for training fishing recruits on the West Coast

The fishing industry is making a push to recruit more Kiwis into jobs by funding more scholarships. The industry was thrown a lifeline by the Government last year when it granted exemption for Russian and Ukrainian fishing crews to enter New Zealand to fill the shortage on deep sea fishing vessels because of Covid-19. A total of 440 Russian and Ukrainian fishermen were due to be flown to New Zealand on two flights chartered by fishing companies in an effort to save the local deep-sea fishing industry,,, To help boost the number of domestic fishermen, Westport Deep Sea Fishing School director Peter Maich said the fishing industry had increased the number of its industry-funded scholarships four-fold. >click to read< 16:22

Teamwork triumphs over trouble

Preparation met opportunity last week off Cape San Blas, when a team of first responders plucked a group of longline grouper fishermen off a boat sinking in rough waters on Christmas Eve morning. No trips to hospitals were needed for the captain and four crew members of the F/V Miss Adley, following the rescue Thursday morning, Dec. 24 by members of South Gulf County Volunteer Fire Department’s water safety and rescue team of first responders. >click to read< 07:15

“Trainee Fisherman of the Year” – Scalloway fisherman and NAFC student scoops top award

Campbell Hunter, who is a crewman on the local whitefish boat Guiding Light (LK 84), received the award in a virtual ceremony last night (Monday). The Fishing News Awards shine a spotlight on the achievements, innovations, and successes of the commercial fishing industries of the UK and Ireland over the last year. Mr Hunter was brought up in Scalloway where his family was mainly involved in the fish buying and processing industry. He decided his future lay in fish catching and while still at school enrolled on the NAFC’s “Maritime Skills for Work” programme, successfully gaining five SQA units relating to maritime activities. On leaving school, Mr Hunter enrolled on the centre’s Seafish “Introduction to Commercial Fishing” programme, >click to read< 15:16

Profiles in Training: American Seafoods Company

Lance Camarena recognized from a young age that he wanted to work in the learning and development arena.,, Today, Camarena is Director of Training & Organizational Development for American Seafoods Company, a fishing company which runs six factory trawlers ranging from 256 to 341 feet. The company employs approximately 1,300 seafarers from 52 countries, with about a 7% turnover in our key officer positions and a 25% turnover in our entry level processor positions. American Seafoods has also implemented a Marine Learning Systems learning management system (LMS) e-learning solution and created the American Seafoods Knowledge Academy (ASKA), which can be accessed from almost any device to complete mandated training. >click to read< 11:04

Captain anchors Extreme Gloucester Fishing school on Harbor Loop

It has been nearly a year since Capt. Joe Sanfilippo first applied his concept of a classroom forum to the task of teaching the intricacies of commercial fishing, including net mending, diesel mechanics, basic electronics, vessel handling and the regulations and history of commercial fishing. In that short time, much has changed. Initially, Sanfilippo and his volunteer lecturers — such as Capt. Tommy Testaverde, owner of the F/V Midnight Sun, John Randazzo, captain of Cruiseport Gloucester’s Beauport Princess and Justin Demetri of the Essex Shipbuilding Museum — held the classes in the basement of Ken Hecht’s building at 189 Main St. >click to read< 10:31

NTSB: Lack of preparation, training a factor in death of 2 on Alaska crab boat

On December 6, 2016, the motor vessel Exito slipped below the surface of icy Dutch Harbor waters, never to be seen again. Aboard when it sank were two men, contractors for Trident Seafoods. Their bodies were never recovered. Now, over two years later, the National Transportation Safety Board has released a report detailing several factors that it says could have saved the two men. click here to read the story 16:53

Training Great Lakes captains – Online education makes Marine Institute a hub for Canadian harvesters

When you think about Ontario, commercial fisheries aren’t something that necessarily comes to mind. But there is a thriving industry on the Great Lakes. In fact, according to the Ontario Commercial Fisheries’ Association (OCFA), “Ontario is home to the largest freshwater fishery in North America.”,,, But much as with Newfoundland and Labrador fisheries, the province of Ontario’s skilled fishers are aging. “The captains are becoming older and starting to retire,” said Jane Graham, executive director of the OCFA. “We wanted to have people trained to step into the role.”,,, The online version of Fishing Master Class IV program started as a pilot project back in 2010 to meet the same needs as those of the OCFA. The initiative was developed by the Marine Institute, in partnership with the Canadian Council of Professional Sea Harvesters and the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, as a way of improving training in the industry and filling the gap in (s)killed harvesters. click here to read the story 18:04

Nunavut-based marine training helps grow Inuit fishing crews

Nunavut has more then 40 per cent of Canada’s coast line, but very few marine crew members in here are actually from the territory — or even Inuit. The Nunavut Fisheries and Marine Training Consortium wants to change that, starting with the territory’s fishing industry. Read the rest here 14:54