Tag Archives: Fishing Partnership Support Services
How a death spurred change for a SouthCoast fleet
In the summer of 2021, a Mayday call went out from the captain aboard a fishing vessel who needed Narcan to help save a life due to an overdose on board. There happened to be another vessel in the vicinity that was able to respond, and they tossed a box of the over-the-counter drug on board. The captain administered one dose, but nothing happened. He gets back on the radio. A second vessel was carrying Narcan and tossed it on board. The captain, after the fourth dose, sent his crew member back onshore alive. “That day there were three fishermen first responders that saved a life at sea,” said Debra Kelsey, with Fishing Partnership Support Services. photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:53
Ferrante urges state officials to ‘step up’ advocacy for fishing
As the Beacon Hill political crowd munched on ceviches and chowders in the Great Hall on Wednesday, they heard a message from the seafood industry aimed more at Washington, D.C., than the halls of the State House. Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, the daughter of a fisherman and a 30-year advocate for the fishing industry, spoke at the annual Seafood Day in the state capitol about “what the federal government does to us.” The Gloucester Democrat found fault with how the feds survey fishery resources and shrink local fishing quotas, saying that the industry will perish unless a new course is charted. She wasn’t alone: Roger Berkowitz, formerly of Legal Sea Foods, told the crowd about NOAA’s past use of “boats with broken gear” to formulate their stock assessments. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:30
Alumnus John Genther ’23 saved man from waters in Long Island Sound
The Coast Guard awarded John Genther ’23 the Meritorious Public Service Award for saving a man’s life, just nine months after he graduated from Furman. It was late one November afternoon, and Genther, working as a commercial whelk fisherman, was hauling in traps or “pots” of the edible sea snails from the cold waters off Long Island Sound. Something blue, about a half mile away, caught his eye. Genther sped over to check out what appeared to be the underside of a small skiff. When he came alongside the overturned vessel, he saw an older man, not wearing a life jacket, barely holding on. The man could scarcely talk in the 55-degree water. Photos, more, >>click to read<< 06:40
“You saved someone’s life,”- Commercial Fisherman makes dramatic rescue
Near sunset last Nov. 6, commercial fisherman John Genther of Madison was steering his boat back home after a day of catching whelk when he spotted a bright blue object about a half mile ahead in the water. As he maneuvered closer, he realized it was a man wrapped in winter clothing, without a life preserver, clinging to the side of an overturned skiff in 55-degree water. Genther immediately recognized the signs of hypothermia and knew what to do, thanks to a first aid training he completed less than two weeks earlier. “You saved someone’s life,” said Nick Lajoie, commander and chief of response for Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound, speaking to Genther and a roomful of attendees at a ceremony on Feb. 8 honoring the heroic act. “It’s a big deal.” more, >>click to read<< 10:22
Seafood Day 2023 to celebrate Bay State’s fishing industry
In a building on Beacon Hill where a carved wooden effigy of an Atlantic cod known as the “Sacred Cod” hangs in the House of Representatives’ chamber, an event at the Statehouse on Wednesday, Oct. 25, plans to celebrate the importance of the seafood industry to the Bay State and coastal communities such as Gloucester, America’s oldest seaport. Seafood Day 2023 at the Statehouse is designed to highlight the fact that for generations, the seafood industry has contributed to Massachusetts’ food security while employing tens of thousands of workers and promoting tourism in coastal towns, organizers say. That’s why several organizations are teaming up to celebrate the sea’s bounty and the fishermen who catch it with an event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Hall of Flags of the Statehouse in Boston. >>click to read<< 10:07
GALLERY: Safety & Survival Class and Drill Conductor Certification at Coast Guard Station Atlantic City
On April 27, 2023, In Atlantic City, The U.S. Coast Guard and Fishing Partnership Support Services are teaming up to offer local commercial fishermen a free hands-on Safety & Survival Class and Drill Conductor Certification at Coast Guard Station Atlantic City. The day’s training is designed for all fishermen, including crewmen, to learn or hone fundamental safety and survival skills. 57 photos, >click to review< 19:50
Stability class aims to keep fishing vessels and crews upright
The Burlington-based nonprofit Fishing Partnership Support Services came to Coast Guard Station Gloucester on Harbor Loop to give 13 people who risk their lives at sea to make a living training on how to best keep their boat stable while fishing. Some local commercial fishermen traded a day on the water for a morning in the classroom Friday as they learned from instructors the importance of removing ice from the decks and rigging to prevent raising a boat’s center of gravity, making sure deck scuppers are clear to allow water to drain, preventing loads or equipment on deck from shifting rapidly, and battening down hatches to make sure water cannot get below deck. >click to read< 14:55
Newly Launched New Bedford Foundation Aims to Keep Fishermen Safe
A new charitable foundation in New Bedford is getting started on its mission to keep fishermen safe by supporting the creation of safety standards in one of the most dangerous industries in the country. Board members yesterday announced the launch of the Seaworthy Foundation, which advocates for safe working conditions on fishing vessels. The foundation was started by family members of fishermen Michael Roberts and Jonathan Saraiva, who died in December 2017 when their boat, the F/V Misty Blue, sank off the coast of Nantucket. >click to read< 15:20
Tight-Knit Fishing Communities Navigate Drugs
Johnnie*, a salt-and-pepper fisherman in his late 50s, is smiling as he tells me what happened one dark night last year. “It was like a movie star, dropping down from the sky off the helicopter to get to my crewmate, pitch of night,” he says. “The Coast Guard—this handsome guy, my wife would’ve loved him, like Rock Hudson—dropped down from the moon. Felt like hours after we had given him all the Narcan we had. The Coast Guard still didn’t carry it back then, did you know that? So they pulled him up into the clouds and we all were left below at sea.”, “It’s not the first time that’s happened on our boat,” Johnnie says. “If we didn’t have that Narcan on board though, kid probably wouldn’t have made it.” >click to read< 19:13
Lifejackets for Lobstermen Project works to get PFDs on every fisherman
From 2000-2016, the Centers for Disease Control charted 204 commercial fishing fatalities from falls overboard. None of the fishermen recovered were wearing a lifejacket, and 108 of the fishermen’s bodies were never found, according to a report of the Lifejacket Project, which was launched to identify solutions and increase fishermen’s interest in wearing lifejackets. In its recently published, 20-page summary report, the Northeast Center for Occupational Health and Safety in Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing chronicles stories from the Lifejackets for Lobstermen Project and provides examples of the fishing community’s interest and engagement with the project. >click to read< 05:46
Report: Lifejackets for Lobstermen a success
The folks from the Lifejackets for Lobstermen campaign had a challenging mission: spread the word to more than 500 lobstermen of the life-saving benefits of wearing personal flotation devices while fishing. And they weren’t sure how they’d be received by the lobstering community that largely has resisted wearing lifejackets and other safety devices because they were uncomfortable, impeded their work or were regarded as too expensive. “When we first hit the road, we weren’t sure what to expect,”,, “From Day One, the lobstermen were very open to talking with us and trying on the different styles of lifejackets.” photos, a pdf report, >click to read< 08:47
Fishermen? Or Offshore Wind Farmer Wannabe’s?!! Massachusetts Group Grants for Offshore Wind Workforce Training
Massachusetts’ Baker-Polito administration has this week announced $1.3 million in grants to nine Massachusetts institutions and organizations to establish or expand workforce training and development programs that support the state’s emerging offshore wind industry. The awards include a $100,000 commitment from Vineyard Wind’s Windward Workforce Fund and a $100,000 commitment from Mayflower Wind’s Offshore Wind Development Fund, and collectively, the grants leverage an estimated cost-share from awardees of approximately $950,000. The programs will be led by institutions located in Taunton, Bourne, Martha’s Vineyard, Lowell, New Bedford, Boston, North Dartmouth, Burlington, and Gloucester, and will serve workers throughout Massachusetts, the administration said. “Massachusetts is a national leader in the responsible development of the emerging offshore wind industry,” said Governor Charlie Baker. >click to read< 14:10
Commercial fishermen gain skills for sea survival at annual training
To help save lives and prevent injuries, a group from Massachusetts is on a mission to travel around New England and train commercial fisherman on what to do in emergencies. They were in Tenants Harbor Thursday. “Anything you can do to make it better and that much safer for anybody by being out here is totally worth it.” “We’re giving them enough information to take back to their boat and share it with their shipmates, and then practice using it. Hopefully they are running the drills and using the equipment,” said safety training director, Ed Dennehy. >Video, click to read<08:10
April 24th, 25th – Fishermen safety training planned in Newburyport, Gloucester
Fishing Partnership Support Services, which was founded in 1997 and maintains offices in four Massachusetts port communities, announces the following training schedule: April 24: Safety and survival training, U.S. Coast Guard Station, 65 Water St., Newburyport, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 25: Drill conductor training, U.S. Coast Guard Station, Newburyport, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Safety and survival training, U.S. Coast Guard Station, 17 Harbor Loop, Gloucester, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 26: Drill conductor training, U.S. Coast Guard Station Gloucester, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Lunch is provided. Safety and survival training will cover: man-overboard procedures, onboard firefighting, emergency communications, flood and pump operation, survival suits, life raft deployment and boarding, and basic first aid. >click to read<12:30
Free training prepares fishermen because ‘every second counts in an emergency at sea’
Fishing Partnership Support Services is offering programs in New Bedford to make life safer for those who have one of the world’s most dangerous jobs, commercial fishing. Safety and Survival Training will be from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 7 at the School for Marine Science and Technology of the University of Massachusetts, 706 S. Rodney French Blvd. Drill Conductor Training will be at the same location from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 8. There is no charge for either program, and lunch is provided both days. A team of certified marine safety instructors will lead both programs, according to a news release. Safety and Survival Training will cover: >click to read<14:37
Honors planned for Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association president
Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, will be the guest of honor at the Sea to Supper Celebration at 6 p.m. Aug. 24 at the Mile Marker One Restaurant & Bar, 75 Essex St., in the Cape Ann Marina Resort.,, Proceeds benefit nonprofit Fishing Partnership Support Services, which Sanfilippo helped found in the late ’90s, and on whose board of directors she has served ever since. Fishing Partnership Support Services helps commercial fishermen and their families through a variety of free services — from safety trainings, to health coverage enrollment assistance, to disaster relief support.,, While honoring Sanfilippo, the Sea to Supper Celebration will also highlight the contributions commercial fishermen have made to coastal communities and to the health of seafood consumers, according to J.J. Bartlett, president of Fishing Partnership Support Services. Tickets are available with links in the article 16:38
Tragedy at sea spurs a father to act – John Gurney implores fishermen to prepare for the worst.
It’s said the most unspeakable grief is that of a parent losing a child. John Gurney has been dealing with that grief since last June, when his son Luke, a well-liked Island conch fisherman with a wife and two young sons, drowned in a tragic accident when he was ensnared by a trawl line and swept overboard. Last week, Mr. Gurney spoke to The Times about the 11 months that have passed since that horrible day. In a conversation punctuated with an occasional laugh and silences of abject sorrow, Mr. Gurney, a gregarious man who looks younger than his 73 years, talked about his love for his son, who was also his business partner and one of his closest friends. He talked about Luke’s love for his work, for his family and his friends. He reminisced about the hundreds of people who spoke to him at Luke’s celebration of life at the Portuguese-American Club, where he heard about the many good deeds his son had quietly done over the years, expecting nothing in return. Click here to read the story 18:42
Safety training offered to fishermen next week in Gloucester
Fishing Partnership Support Services will conduct the last of its spring series of safety trainings for commercial fishermen next week in Gloucester. Safety and Survival at Sea is scheduled for Thursday, May 18, at the Gloucester Coast Guard Station, 17 Harbor Loop, from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. This free program will cover: · Man-overboard procedure· Firefighting and emergency communications · Flood and pump operations · Survival suits· Life raft deployment and boarding · Helicopter hoist procedures · Basic first aid For those fishermen who want to be certified as Drill Conductors, training will continue on Friday, May 19, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the same facility. click here for more detail 13:41
The Massachusetts fishing fleet confronts an opioid problem
A reputation for drug use has long followed the Massachusetts fishing fleet, whose fiercely independent crews often return to port flush with cash and ready to exhale after long and dangerous trips. Some fishermen link that reputation to a rugged cowboy culture; others to the pain medication taken by men and women whose bodies are battered by the job. But now, as opioid deaths rise relentlessly in Massachusetts, fishing captains from Cape Ann to Buzzards Bay are beginning to stock their boats with naloxone, a drug that reverses overdoses and is commonly sold under the trademark Narcan. click here to continue reading the story 09:46
Reality check – As they gear up for the season, Island fishermen receive two days of safety and survival training.
Don’t put the injured on the raft first, they can slow down the evacuation. Don’t stow survival suits below decks. Don’t leave port without a Nerf football. This was some of the wisdom imparted to a group of 35 commercial fishermen gathered at Coast Guard Station Menemsha on a gray, windy Thursday morning, where, appropriately, a storm front was bearing down on the Vineyard. It was day one of two training days for commercial fishermen — along with sailors, harbormasters, and shellfish constables — provided by Burlington-based Fishing Partnership Support Services (FPSS). The focus of the day one was safety and survival. Participants rotated among six training modules: man overboard procedure, firefighting and flares, survival suits, helicopter hoist operations, flooding and pump operations, first aid and CPR, and life raft equipment. seven images, click here to read the story 16:19
PARRI to offer Narcan training for fishermen
John Rosenthal, Co-founder and Chairman of the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.), Allie Hunter McDade, Executive Director of P.A.A.R.I., Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken and Police Chief John McCarthy are pleased to announce that the City of Gloucester, in conjunction with the Fishing Partnership Support Services, Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association and the Coast Guard, will offer CPR, first aid and nasal naloxone training to commercial fisherman on Friday, March 31. Approximately 40 fishermen will attending the CPR/first aid course, which will include a segment where they learn how to recognize and respond to an opioid overdose, including how to administer nasal Narcan, which will then become another staple instrument included in their first aid kits. continue reading the story here 08:38
Gloucester’s Angela Sanfilippo, A Fisherman’s Wife, named to Seafood Hall of Fame
Angela Sanfilippo has spent this week, just as she did last year, helping plan the annual foray by the city and its fishing community into Sunday’s fifth Boston Seafood Festival. This year, however, will be different. While the Gloucester contingent will be dishing out its wildly popular redfish soup, Sanfilippo will also be on the receiving end of a distinctive honor when she is ushered into the Boston Seafood Hall of Fame at the festival’s opening ceremony on the Boston Fish Pier. “I was surprised and pleased at the same time,” Sanfilippo said Wednesday. “I had no idea.”Citing her life’s work as an unwavering voice of the Gloucester and Massachusetts fishing communities, the Boston Fisheries Foundation said her induction is due to her role with the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association (GFWA) and the Fishing Partnership Support Services as a “tireless protector” of the oceans those communities rely upon. Read the story here 21:35
Fishing Partnership Support Services named Community Health Worker Program of the Year
The Fishing Partnership Support Services has been named Community Health Worker Program of the Year Award for 2016 by the Mass. Association of Community Health Workers, the statewide group announced Friday. The organization that started out as a health insurance provider in 1997 is today, since 2011, a comprehensive provider not only of health care through the Massachusetts Conductor, but a one-stop resource where highly skilled “navigators” walk fishing families, and even some who aren’t, through the often daunting and difficult task of dealing with bureaucracies of many kinds. Verna Kendall of New Bedford, office manager of the New Bedford partnership office, said that initial goal was a narrow but important one: “When we began the fishing families had no place to go for health care, so Jim (her husband) and the group started the health plan. Read the rest here 22:41
A lobsterman’s safety training kicks in
It was an unseasonably warm morning on Friday, Nov. 6, 2015, when Sam Allen set out alone from Ipswich Bay on his 28-foot lobster boat, the Dawn Breaker. The temperature was in the low 60s, the sky was clear, the seas flat. A moderate wind was blowing from the southwest. “It was a gorgeous day,” recalled Allen, who is 39 and has been a fisherman all his life. Around 9 a.m., he was working off the southern tip of Plum Island, in a spot known as Emerson’s Pocket, roughly 250 yards from shore, when he confronted a typical problem in his line of work. One of his trawl lines, a long rope running from a surface buoy to 10 lobster traps on the ocean bottom, could not be reeled in. That meant at least one of the traps was stuck below. Read the story here 12:21
Connecticut: Free Safety and Survival Training by Fishing Partnership Support Services May 04, 2016
This hands-on training, provided at no cost to commercial fishermen, is sponsored by Fishing Partnership Support Services, and conducted by Coast Guard Certified Marine Safety Instructors. The one day program includes: on-board firefighting, flooding & pump operations, flares & EPIRBS, survival suits, life raft equipment, man overboard and helicopter hoist procedures. Lunch is provided courtesy of Ocean Marine Insurance Agency. This training is sponsored by Connecticut Sea Grant, UCONN at Avery Point and AMSEA and is supported by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership (MFP). Location: UCONN at Avery Point – 1084 Shennecossett Road, Groton, CT, 06340 Date: May 04, 2016 Time: 09:00am – 04:00pm Details, and registration form, click here 09:30
Safety Training for Commercial Fishermen in Montauk – 4/27/2016
Commercial fishermen can take advantage of free safety training programs that will be offered next week at the Montauk Coast Guard Station. , a Massachusetts organization that supports the health and well-being of fishing families, will present a safety and survival training program on Wednesday from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Coast Guard station on Star Island Road. On-board firefighting, man-overboard procedures, flooding and pump operations, flares and emergency positioning devices, survival suits, life raft equipment, helicopter hoist and rescue procedures, and first aid will be covered during the program. Read the rest here 16:22
New manual outlines steps for fishermen, communities to take in crisis
The concept first began to crystallize in Angela Sanfilippo’s mind about four years ago, when the president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association realized she needed to start putting some things down on paper. Sanfilippo, both in her roles with fishing-based community groups and her own experience as a wife, daughter and sister of fishermen, had helped develop a series of protocols to help fishermen avoid calamities on the water and help the Gloucester fishing community deal with fishing tragedies when they occur. “I just thought that we should start putting these things in writing because we’re not going to be around forever,” Sanfilippo said. Thus was born the idea that burst into reality yesterday when the Fishing Partnership Support Services unveiled its RESCUES manual in an event at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Station Gloucester. Read the rest here 22:50
Fishing Partnership Support Services mission is to keep fishermen safe
Eighteen fishermen from around New England took to the seas of Hyannis Inner Harbor on Friday for free training put on by a nonprofit group called Fishing Partnership Support Services. “You don’t want to be doing this stuff for the first time when you’re out on the water,” said the organization’s safety training coordinator Luis Catala, a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard. “This is a great chance for them to practice and learn.” Read the rest here 09:32
FREE! Fishing Partnership Support Services SAFETY & SURVIVAL TRAINING – Scituate, Ma. OCTOBER 1 & 2
This hands-on training, provided at no cost to commercial fishermen, is sponsored by Fishing Partnership Support Services, and conducted by Coast Guard Certified Marine Safety Instructors. The one day program includes: on-board firefighting, man-overboard procedures, flooding & pump operations, flares & EPIRBS, survival suits, life raft equipment, man overboard and helicopter hoist procedures and first aid. Lunch is provided courtesy of Ocean Marine Insurance Agency. The training is supported by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership (MFP). Read the rest here 11:19
