Fishing Partnership Support Services is bringing its popular, free safety trainings for commercial fishermen to Sandwich on Cape Cod. According to a press release, Safety and Survival Training will be held on Thursday, March 23, from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm, at the Cape Cod Canal Coast Guard Station, 1 Coast Guard Road. Drill Conductor Training will be held at the same location on the next day, Friday, March 24, 8 am to 4 pm. A team of certified marine safety instructors will lead both programs. The U.S. Coast Guard and the Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership are supporting both events.
Safety and Survival Training will cover these crucial subjects:
- Man-overboard procedures
- Firefighting and emergency communications
- Flood and pump operation
- Survival suits
- Life raft deployment and boarding
- Helicopter hoist procedures
- Basic first aid
Drill Conductor Training prepares and certifies fishermen to conduct emergency drills at sea, as federal regulations require monthly drills on commercial fishing boats operating beyond the U.S. boundary line. Emergency situations addressed in this training include: man overboard, fire, damage control, and abandon ship. There will be an emergency procedures class in the morning, and practice drills aboard a docked vessel in the afternoon. As a prerequisite for Drill Conductor Training, fishermen have to have taken the Safety and Survival Training within the previous 12 months.
Walk-ins are welcome on the day of each program, but preregistration is strongly recommended. Fishermen may register online by going to fishingpartnership.org or by contacting Morgan or Shannon Eldredge, 508-237-9402, the Cape Cod–based health care navigators for Fishing Partnership Support Services.