CRAB SEASON: Coast Guard leads with safety lessons|News|thenewsguard.com

The brand-new business crabbing season opens on Friday, Jan 4, from Cape Arago to the Oregon-Washington border, and the Coast Guard is hoping for a safe and thriving journey for regional crabbers.Coast Guard workers have worked with many members of the Pacific Northwest fishing fleet throughout the last four months preparing them to be safe and experienced during the commercial Dungeness crabbing season.”The Dungeness crab fishery is one

of the most hazardous occupations in the country,”said Curt Farrell, fishing vessel security planner, Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Portland.”There is no method to make it 100 percent safe, but our objective is to ensure that everyone that takes part in the fishery has everything they require consisting of the equipment and understanding to come house to loved ones”Farrell said almost every survivor of an emergency situation including a fishing vessel in the Pacific Northwest has taken part in one or more of the drill conductor courses.”During drill conductor courses held at numerous ports including Coos Bay, Newport, Garibaldi and Astoria since September, the Coast Guard workers have performed more than 90 fishing vessel examinations and trained more than 75 fishermen.The fishing vessel examinations make sure that the vessels are bring the obligatory security equipment consisting of life rafts, immersion fits, flares, lifejackets and other emergency equipment. Industrial fishermen are needed to practice emergency circumstances at least as soon as monthly and the drill conductor course trains anglers how to run those practice sessions. The training offers industrial fishermen the opportunity to receive valuable hands-on safety devices and emergency situation drill training.Participants practiced with emergency equipment needed aboard the majority of business fishing vessels– individual flotation devices, life rafts, immersion suits, distress signals, EPIRBs and fire extinguishers. They discovered and practiced emergency situation treatments, such as male overboard retrieval, deserting ship, firefighting and flooding control through on board emergency situation drills and practical demonstrations.The typical opening of the industrial crabbing season along the Oregon Coast starts in early December, but The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife postponed the start of the season following tests that revealed the crabs were too low in meat yield.The ODFW reports that fisherman took in around $74 million from the last business Dungeness crabbing season in Oregon.