Coast Guard urges safety, preparedness for the 2021-2022 Dungeness crab season in NorCal

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The Coast Guard urges commercial fishermen throughout Northern California to review their safety equipment and seek out Coast Guard dockside examinations to identify safety hazards in order to prevent maritime emergencies during the Dungeness crab season.

California Coast Guard personnel conducted dockside exams and safety spot-checks last week to identify discrepancies aboard fishing boats prior to the Dungeness crab season from Crescent City to Monterey.

The checks are part of the Coast Guard’s Operation Safe Crab, which is an annual outreach initiative aimed to reduce the loss of lives and fishing boats in the West Coast crab fleet.

“One of the most dangerous jobs in America is commercial fishing and Dungeness crab fishing is considered the most deadly of all the West Coast commercial fisheries,” said Peg Murphy, Eleventh Coast Guard District Commercial Fishing Vessel Safety program manager. “California’s commercial Dungeness crab fishermen are preparing for the season to open in Northern California.

In previous years, records showed nearly a third of California’s commercial fleet Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRBs) and survival craft carried aboard were installed incorrectly.

“While many of these discrepancies are able to be corrected during a dockside inspection, having critical safety gear not functioning properly could be the difference between a rescue and a life lost,” said Murphy.

Any crab boat with serious safety discrepancies, such as overloading of crab pots, instability, lack of watertight integrity, or missing primary lifesaving equipment, can be restricted from operating by the Coast Guard until the discrepancies are corrected.

All California commercial crab fishermen are strongly encouraged to contact their local Coast Guard commercial fishing vessel safety examiner prior to the opener with any questions about safety and applicable federal regulations.

Since 1991, the Coast Guard’s Commercial Fishing Vessel Safety (CFVS) Program has been helping commercial fishermen identify and eliminate potential at-sea safety hazards. Additionally, the successful completion of a dockside exam can greatly abbreviate future Coast Guard at-sea boardings.

For further information, please contact the Eleventh Coast Guard District CFVS Program Manager at 510-437-5931, or Northern California CFVS dockside examiners at: Monterey Bay (831) 647-7357; San Francisco to Bodega Bay (415) 399-7310; Fort Bragg to Crescent City (707) 269-2577.

-USCG-

U.S. Coast Guard 11th District Pacific Southwest
Contact: 11th District Public Affairs
Office: (510) 437-3325
After Hours: (510) 772-8865
[email protected]
11th District online newsroom

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The New England groundfish debacle (Part III): who or what is at fault? Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet

It took me a while to decide how to most accurately describe the situation that has been visited upon the New England fishing communities that are and since colonial times have been dependent on the groundfish fisheries.

NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?

While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here

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