Fishing about and about fishing
THE ANSWER IS BLOWING IN THE WIND
According to the USCG Commandant, Adm. Thad Allen, the waters of the Bering Sea are “challenging for vessel operations and search and rescue missions”. The stormy Bering Sea is notorious as a widow maker. Last March, the Seattle-based 203-ft long, 1,562-gt fishing factory ship Alaska Ranger, sunk in mild weather in 2,000-m water off the Aleutian Islands, 120 miles from Dutch Harbor. She had 47 people on board. Almost miraculously, 42 of them were saved thanks to joint efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and the crew of her sister ship Alaska Warrior, which happened to be not far away.
The USCG excels in search and rescue operations and hundreds if not thousands of seafarers, commercial fishermen, as well as recreational boatmen and fishermen owe their lives to its brave seamen and airmen. Also in the case of Alaska Ranger if not the USCG the number of casualties would’ve been much larger.
The USCG, however, is also charged with prevention of such tragedies, a field in which it seems to excel much less than in its search-and-rescue operations. This, perhaps, because it is restricted by inadequate legislation and regulation as related to marine safety in the American fishing fleets. The Coast Guard has eleven statutory missions, with Marine Safety only one of them.
Evidently, the USCG has plenty on its agenda, besides the task of preventing fishing people from sailing on board unsafe vessels. And, perhaps, the USCG is not aggressive enough in demanding to be equipped in more legal instruments and budgetary means to enforce better marine safety practice throughout the marine fisheries. Or perhaps, as accused in a recent review report, it “no longer considered Marine Safety an important mission.”.
I think that the case of Alaska Ranger can serve as an example.
The factual parts of this column were derived from press reports (ABC News, AP, The Seattle Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer), and reports by USCG officers and inspectors.
Alaska Ranger was a 35-year-old, converted flat bottom boat designed for servicing oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Some of her crew believed that their ship, nicknamed "the Ranger Danger", was unsafe, essential repairs delayed and problems onboard the ship constantly ignored. With many leaks, including in the galley, the bathrooms, the laundry room and even the crew's quarters, she needed lots of repairs. One crew member testified that the bilge pumps did not function.
Another crew member noticed that even before the ship left Dutch Harbor a significant amount of seawater had leaked into the rudder room. Others were telling about leaks aboard Alaska Ranger that had been repaired earlier. "It was just a very dirty, nasty boat," said a man who disembarked after a fortnight on board the ship. On the top of it all, some of the crews testified that there was a lot of (forbidden) drinking on board.
Only last autumn severe corrosion was found on a metal wall inside the vessel's ballast tank, a compartment between the hull and interior that can be flooded to make the boat more stable. Also, they found a bulkhead that was severely damaged and required replacement. An order to replace the wall hadn't been carried out before the Ranger sank. One USCG officer reported that “he doesn't believe the Ranger or two of its sister ships that he inspected are up to the standards set for other commercial vessels inspected by the Coast Guard”. …"If it was a (Coast Guard) inspected vessel, it wouldn't have been in that condition," he said. “It's not uncommon - said the director of the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association - that watertight compartments get compromised when an oil services vessel is converted to fishing and the fish processing and other equipment are where were once watertight spaces”.
The Fishing Company of Alaska Inc., the sunken Ranger’s owner operates four other large fishing vessels, all of which were built in the 1970s, and has a history of conflict with federal fishery regulators.
This was the third disaster that struck in this century the Bering Sea fishing fleets; in 2001, the trawler Arctic Rose capsized and sank killing all 15 men aboard. The next year an explosion and fire aboard the longliner Galaxy killed three. From 1994 to 2004, almost 1400 American commercial fishing vessels were lost and 641 fishermen died. The USCG attributed 69% of vessel losses to vessel maintenance and self-examination.
In 2006, the USCG created new standards for the Bering Sea fishing fleet, requiring upgrading crew training and improving the watertight integrity, stability, etc., and for the first time, seaworthiness inspection. Previously, the USCG could only check life safety equipment. Out of over 60 vessels so far only 20 of the have passed inspection. The Ranger hadn't.
However, the USCG made up a new "alternative compliance and safety" treatment exempting this fleet from the normal regulations “because of the advanced age of most of the boats”. Well, well, wouldn’t a common sense require even stricter regulations to be applied to “boats of advanced age”. Shouldn’t one expect that vessels fishing in the Bering Sea would be designed and maintained to fit the conditions?
Notwithstanding, the USCG’s 17th District fishing vessel safety coordinator said that while the Alaska Ranger was enrolled in the alternative voluntary safety program, she had not fully completed the requirements and was seeking an extension. She and other vessels had until January 2009 to complete the program. In short, although not regarded fully safe, the Ranger kept fishing in the Bering Sea, where sharp-ice encounters on previous fishing trips might have made her vulnerable to leaks, under conditions as hard and dangerous as any.
No wonder that having been asked by Adm. Allen to review the Marine Safety programme, Vice Adm. (Ret.) J.C.Card, in the past USCG’s Vice-Commandant, read the riot act to his former service. And Bob Dylan could ask: “How many times can a rusty ship leak, before she’s barred from sea”?