Armando Estudante, owner of the fishing boat Endurance, walks out of the water after practicing floating in his survival suit.
Longtime fisherman, Antonio Lameiro walks onto the boat ramp in from the waters off of West Beach, after testing his survival suit.
Participants practice putting on their survival suits, before jumping into the waters of West Beach in the south end of New Bedford.
Safety Training In COVID-19
The pandemic has not diminished demand for safety training for Commercial Fishermen. And Fishing Partnership Support Services has responded by resuming safety training In COVID-19 with a tailored approach to instruction that strictly follows the newly established protocols. Recently, a COVID-19 compliant training took place in New Bedford to train 12 individuals in Safety at Sea.
Training during COVID-19 has meant new, innovative practices to ensure the protection and safety of all participants including commercial fishermen attendees, safety instructors, members of the Coast Guard and State Police and observers like photographer Peter Pereira who joined us to document these events with his camera.
Learning and honing fundamental survival skills like making a MAYDAY call, extinguishing fires, and controlling flooding has never been more important. The training was led by Luis Catala, Fishing Partnership’s Safety Training Program Coordinator. It included a full day of training. In addition to those mentioned, the program also covered things like how to recover a person that falls overboard, light flares, and manually deploying a life raft.
Fishing Partnership is proud to deliver safety and survival training successfully to small groups to ensure fishermen and crewmen, even during COVID19, are prepare for being out on the water.
COVID-19 PROTOCOLS & HEALTH SCREENING
Here are the COVID-19 safety protocols Fishing Partnership has deployed to protect the safety of fishermen trainees, instructors, and staff members.
- With rare exceptions, training is conducted outdoors in unenclosed spaces.
- Upon arrival to the training site, FPSS conducts a health screening of all trainees, instructors, and staff.
- All training equipment and touch surfaces are disinfected prior to each training event and throughout the training day.
- FPSS provides all individuals with masks and sanitizer to carry and use frequently throughout the day.
- Social distancing of 6 feet or more is required during all training modules.
- When instruction involves speaking for an extended period of time, the instructor maintains 10-foot separation from other participants.
- The following exceptions to social distancing are permitted: Family members living together and Fishermen from the same vessel that are using other COVID-19 prevention measures instead of social distancing.
- Shared equipment (e.g. fire extinguishers) are disinfected after every use with disinfectant wipes.
- Survival suits are never shared.
- Exercises with high-risk of transmission, such as entering an enclosed life raft do not occur.
- Survival suits and other equipment that is difficult to clean are isolated for at least 7 days after training.
- Trainees are divided into groups of 12 or less.
- No more than 25 total individuals (including instructors) attend an individual training event.
- FPSS monitors and follows new or additional federal, state, and community requirements for COVID-19.