Five crewmembers died when the fishing vessel, Alaska Ranger, sank last March in the Bering Sea, a jolting reminder that mariners must be prepared for the worst.

A surviving crewmember of the Alaska Ranger told investigators that no one assigned to his life raft knew how to deploy it. Another crewmember died after falling out of a Coast Guard helicopter rescue basket. Problems with immersion suits may have contributed to other deaths.

The Alaska Marine Safety Education Association (AMSEA) says that solid safety training reduces the number of these tragedies, adding that mariners can easily access training in Alaska, including complete instruction on how to use life rafts, execute rescues by helicopters, and use and care for immersion suits.

"According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), safety-trained fishermen are 1.5 times more likely to survive an accident at sea. When the chips are down, just having the survival equipment without knowing how to get the most out of it in an emergency, always turns out to be a bad decision," said Jerry Dzugan, AMSEA director.

Founded in 1985 and based in Sitka, Alaska, AMSEA collaborates with the U.S. Coast Guard, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska Vocational Technical Centre, the Alaska commercial fishing industry, and others to help mariners prevent and survive accidents at sea.

Thousands of mariners have been trained via AMSEA training programmes and materials. Fishermen attest that the training has saved lives. One fisherman told Mr Dzugan that his crew successfully recovered a man overboard, thanks to preparation by AMSEA. "The drill training was very important. When the crewmember fell overboard, everything just clicked well together, and we got the person back onboard. The training was really helpful," he said.

In addition to providing complete marine safety training programmes, AMSEA teams with the Alaska Sea Grant College Program at the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences to produce publications and videos that provide information crucial to safety at sea.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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