Major Fleets in North Pacific Urge Coast Guard to Keep 2-Year Inspection Cycle
SEAFOODNEWS.COM By Peggy Parker - October 16, 2015
Twelve of the largest commercial fishing fleets in the North Pacific, representing over a thousand vessels supporting over 10,000 fishermen, have urged the Coast Guard to keep a 20-year policy to require a dockside safety exam every two-years.
Their pleas have landed on deaf ears. Their most recent letter of September 14 has been unanswered.
On August 18, the Coast Guard notified fishing fleets of the change in policy, which became effective on October 15.
“There is a 30-year history of the Coast Guard and fishermen collaborating in the North Pacific fisheries to make this industry safer,” the letter to Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Zukunft, says. “The vibrant safety programs we enjoy today were built upon the losses of loved husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters.
“It would be ironic and tragic if the policies that achieved these hard fought gains were to be discontinued by the very agency tasked with promoting fishing vessel safety.”
The authors say the shift in policy will reverse...
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