USMSA

Let us listen to Pedro's advice

Interviewed in the days after the Northern Edge sank, the lone survivor of the scallop vessel, Pedro Furtado, said he survived because he was trained in Portugal to jump from a sinking ship and swim to a life raft. He knew how to properly open the raft, how to climb inside and that paddling furiously was a way to remain conscious while awaiting rescuers. He called to his other four crewmates and urged them to abandon the ship, but they froze in fear on the deck. One man jumped, but was unable to reach the raft. The captain stayed in the wheelhouse. Two others sank with the boat.

Why did Mr. Furtado jump to get into the life raft and the others not?

Mr. Furtado believes that it was because he was trained and certified under the Portuguese system that requires commercial fishermen to hold a license to go fishing. Canada and most European Union countries that fish in the North Atlantic now require such licenses and have for several years. But the United States has remained aloof as the rugged individual. And year after year, this fishing port and other ports pay the price in lost fishermen who typically work for captains who have no license, aboard ships that aren't required to be inspected. The issue of licensing fishermen has been raised for more than 70 years by fishermen's families, the Coast Guard and members of Congress. It is often raised after great tragedies. But each time it is dismissed; the bills die in Congress, according to Richard Hiscock, the author of "Fishing Vessel Safety in the United States: The Tragedy of Missed Opportunities." The first and only piece of legislation designed to improve the safety of fishermen was passed in 1988. Earlier versions of the Commercial Fishing Industry Vessel Safety Act of 1988 had included requirements that fishermen be licensed. But this was removed before the act was finally passed. Instead, the act requires each vessel to conduct monthly safety drills. But there is no requirement that vessel captains or boat owners log these drills. There is no way of being sure that today's highly transient fishermen, who travel from one boat to another because boats are restricted to fewer and fewer fishing days, ever get any safety training. One vessel owner in New Bedford described the drills his captain conducts each month. One man shows how to put on the survival suit, he said. The others watch. But one man in a crew of seven demonstrating how to put on this cumbersome suit that provides life-sustaining warmth and flotation for hours is not enough to be sure the others will know how to don the suit in an emergency. Anyone who has ever lived through a water emergency knows that when panic sets in, it's not easy to remember what someone else showed you. Often, only the person who has done some task so many times that it becomes automatic will be able to pull that suit on rapidly or get into that lifeboat amid high waves when their brain is frozen in fear. The type of safety training that other countries require for their fishermen is a form of respect these nations have decided to give to the men and women who take these difficult jobs. It has the effect of professionalizing the fishermen's job. Pedro Furtado's words about his own training must be the impetus for this nation to show greater respect for fishermen and their safety. Of course, this attitude of respect must change from within the industry as well as without. Fatalistic acceptance of these deaths as the price of a dangerous occupation must cease. For this community is paying far too high a price because this nation has stubbornly resisted what makes good sense -- required safety training and certification for every man or woman that goes to sea to fish.

New Bedford is so rightfully proud of this industry and the people who toil in it.

This city must lead the effort to show fishermen respect by requiring that fishermen receive professional training to save their lives.