USCG Kicks Off Operation Safe Catch

The USCG has commenced Operation Safe Catch, an Atlantic Area commitment to improve commercial fishing vessel safety and prevent loss of life and property at sea. The implementation of the commercial fishing industry vessel regulations published in 1991 have reduced F/V casualties and subsequent loss of life throughout the fishing fleet. However, 11 lives lost off the mid-Atlantic coast in December and January confirms commercial fishing ranks among the most hazardous occupations in the U.S. Each year, approximately 80 people die nationally while conducting commercial fishing operations. During Safe Catch, USCG at-sea boarding teams and dockside examiners within USCGAtlantic Area, the east and gulf coasts of the U.S. and Great Lakes region, will ensure compliance by checking critical items on commercial F/Vs. These items will include immersion suits, survival craft, survival craft stowage, distress signals, EPIRBs, fire extinguishers, high-water alarms, water tight integrity, damaged or broken hoses, stability letters and vessel overloading. Since there are between approximately 60,000 and 80,000 commercial fishing vessels in Atlantic Area, USCG examiners will concentrate on "high risk" vessels. These are vessels in poor condition with inadequate safety equipment; have a history of repeated search and rescue interventions; or engage in higher risk fishery operations, such as one-person fishing vessels operated far from shore.