Commercial Fishing Safety Advisory Committee News

U.S. South Pacific Tuna Corporation pointed to the tuna industry’s 2013 record of zero fatalities in response to a recent report, implication of safety concerns and 2012 violations from foreign officers license certification, as cited in a recent press release from Coast Guard Sector Guam. The company’s track record of overall operational safety and ongoing policy improvement work in cooperation with the United States Coast Guard in Washington, D.C., as well as the Fourteenth Guard District in Honolulu…

When Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRB) are activated in emergency situations the system transmits vessel identification information to rescuers. Traditional EPIRBs rely on satellite Doppler Shift to identify the distress location. There are a wide  variety of Coast Guard approved EPIRBs on the market but many do not have the most up-to-date feature: the  ability to transmit the EPIRB’s GPS location. Several recent casualty investigations have revealed that EPIRB owners are largely unaware that rescue efforts are significantly improved and your vessel’s location transmitted more quickly and accurately when distress signals are initiated by  GPS enhanced EPIRBs. GPS enhanced EPIRBs normally save 30 to 100 minutes in obtaining an accurate location.