The captain of the boat and the deckhand fell into the water. Neither was wearing a survival suit or lifejacket. The victim was airlifted by helicopter, but suffered a cardiac arrest soon after. He died in spite of all attempts to revive him.

This is a tragedy for the victim’s family. He was just 47 years old, and his death was entirely preventable.

Deckhands are the backbone of any vessel. These workers perform myriad functions on a vessel, including taking charge of security operations. They also help with daily activities around the vessel including cleaning, painting walls, polishing and maintenance activities, and helping with mooring lines. More experienced deckhands will move on to taking turns on the bridge, and may even help with the wheel. They maintain logs, and measure the depth of the water pressure so the vessel doesn’t run aground. Basically, these workers help maintain the ship and look after the day-to-day running of the ship.

As a maritime injury lawyer, I know that working conditions for these people are hectic, and they can expect long hours on the deck in all kinds of weather.  They are frequently exposed to toxic chemicals and paint fumes. They work in an environment which can be distracting and continuously noisy. Their work may involve hazardous mechanical equipment, and the risk of deckhand injuries is always high.

There are opportunities to advance ahead, and get promoted to higher positions on the vessel. However, that can happen only if a deckhand stays healthy and fit, and maintains a high level of stamina.

A seaman never hopes to be in a position where he needs to use life rafts, life jackets, firefighting equipment, and myriad other life saving devices that a vessel must have. However, failure to have properly functioning life saving equipment can very often mean the difference between life and death for a seaman.

The Coast Guard last month terminated the voyages of three commercial fishing vessels off Alaska. The Coast Guard conducted an inspection of the vessels and found that one of them had expired life rafts, while other two did not have lifesaving devices at all. The vessels were escorted back by a Coast Guard cutter, and they must clear the violations before they begin a journey again.

In the middle of a fire that requires you to abandon a ship is not the time for you to find out that you don’t have enough number of life jackets or survival suits for each crewmember, or that one of the crewmembers cannot fit into his suit. These are potentially fatal deficiencies, and while the Coast Guard does what it can by conducting inspections and penalizing commercial fishing vessel owners and operators for violations, the fact is that several lives are lost every year due to such failures.

Vessel owners have a duty to provide life saving equipment to seamen.

• Equipment must be properly designed.
• There must be enough numbers of lifesaving devices on the vessel for each crewmember.
• Lifesaving gear like survival suits, must fit each crewmember.
• Crewmembers must be trained to use these life saving devices quickly and safely in an emergency.
• Lifesaving equipment must be inspected periodically or at the start of every season to make sure they function properly.

Failure to perform any of these activities can place the employer/ vessel owner at liability in a Jones Act negligence or unseaworthiness claim.

Maritime lawyer Brian Beckcom is a Board Certified trial lawyer, whose primary focus is the representation of injured Jones Act seamen, tankermen, galleyhands, deckhands, drillers, oilrig workers, offshore workers and other maritime workers in accidents in Texas, around the country and in international waters.

As part of its efforts to prevent injuries associated with crabbing vessel crewmembers, the Coast Guard conducted spot inspections just before the Dungeness crab fishing season commenced off Oregon, last week. The aptly named Operation Safe Crab involved spot checking of fishing vessels, as crewmembers set sail in a lucrative and deadly season, that involves plenty of risk and hazards.  Checks of fishing vessels in the past have shown improper installation of life rafts and EPIRBs, overloading, and lack of life saving equipment. These violations mean the difference between life and death for a worker in an emergency.

Commercial Fishing is the Deadliest Occupation in the Country

According to the Coast Guard, crab fishing is the most dangerous of all fishing occupations. It has an injury rate that is seven times as high as the injury rate for other fishermen. When the fishing season begins off the Oregon coast, there will be big bucks at stake. The Dungeness fishery is highly lucrative, and last year, fisherman harvested 30 million pounds worth of harvest. While all attention on commercial fishing vessel injuries tends to focus on the dangers of commercial fishing in the Bering Sea -no thanks to shows like “Deadliest Catch” – fishermen off the coast of Oregon and in the Dungeness fishery are also at risk from the stiff competition for catch. The competition for a bigger catch means that fishing vessel crews keep loading their holds beyond safe levels, placing vessel and crew at great risk.

While the Deadliest Catch has focused some much needed attention on the risks commercial fishermen go through so we have sublime king crab on our table, let’s not forget other commercial fishing vessel crews around the country also battle hazardous work environments, treacherous seas and rough weather, all in a day’s work.

If you have questions about your rights as an injured commercial fishing vessel crewmember, contact a maritime attorney at Vujasinovic and Beckcom for a free initial consultation.

A dive team in Oregon has recovered the body of a crab fishing vessel crewmember, who fell off the boat last week. Coast Guard crews had been dispatched to the scene after receiving a radio call from the vessel that one of the crew had fallen overboard.

It’s hard to fully appreciate the nightmare that can quickly unfold for a seaman on a tanker, freighter, commercial fishing vessel or any other type of Jones Act vessel, if he manages to fall off. This is especially more so if such falls occur during the winter season, when you can expect freezing waters. For instance, a fall overboard into the waters of the Bering sea off an Alaskan king crab fishing vessel, means that a seaman has only a couple of minutes within which he must be rescued. Hyperthermia can quickly set in, and once this happens, a crewmember may find it hard to stay afloat. The numbness in the body may be accompanied by dizziness, confusion and disorientation, making it harder for a seaman to focus on staying alive.

In case of a fall overboard, the vessel must make efforts to locate the missing crewmember for as long as there may be reasonable hope that the crewmember is alive. Unfortunately, maritime lawyers are more likely to come across cases where a worker has been killed in a fall overboard, than rescued.

It’s not necessary that every fall overboard automatically translate into a death sentence for the concerned seaman. With the use of Emergency Positioning Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRBs) and other technologies, locating a missing crewmember is much easier than it is used to be.  There are also systems that can monitor the movement of seamen. These systems can sound an alarm when any crewmember is missing. Not all vessels come with these systems, but they are a substantial investment in worker safety.

Something as simple as wearing a life jacket can increase your chance of surviving a fall. Unfortunately, work on a crab fishing vessel can be hectic and strenuous, and workers often prefer to work without wearing a jacket because wearing these can be cumbersome and get in their way. This can significantly alter their chances of surviving a fall overboard.

In an interesting decision, an appeals court has held that a vessel owner may be held liable for injuries suffered by a crewmember because of working long hours.

The injured seaman Samson Ili, used to work 16-hour shifts, lifting heavy trays of frozen fish, weighing up to 70 pounds. During one such shift, Ili fell, and suffered serious injuries. He sued the vessel owner, filing a Jones act claim as well as a claim of unseaworthiness. A federal district court granted summary judgment for the vessel owner. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has now reversed that judgment.

According to the appeals court, the extended work hours on the vessel on which Ili was working, could constitute unseaworthiness, considering that other vessels that were owned by the defendants, worked shorter shifts. The other vessels had 12 hour and 14 hour shifts. According to an American Seafoods employee, the company had been experimenting with shorter shifts to see if these were safer for seamen.

Lack of sufficient number of crew members can be the basis for a claim of unseaworthiness. In this instance, it appears as if having more number of workers could have allowed for shorter shifts, and therefore, reduced the risk of injuries. More number of workers, however, means greater expenses for a shipping company.

Vessels Owners Have the Duty to Provide a Seaworthy Ship

Seaworthiness refers to the responsibility of the vessel owners to provide a safe working and living environment for the seaman. This doesn’t extend only to the actual physical structure of the ship and its components, but also to the captains and crewmembers on the vessel. Claims of unseaworthiness are brought against the vessel owner, and not the employer. However in most of the cases, those two parties will be the same.

If you have questions about a claim of unseaworthiness and whether your situation may be eligible for such a claim, contact a maritime attorney at Vujasinovic & Beckcom for a free consultation about your case.