Washington Maritime Injury Lawyer Blog

The ARICA, a factory trawl fishing vessel at a dry dock on the east side of Lake Union, began taking on water one day last week. Crews members were pumping out water from the boat when they lost power and called the Seattle Fire Department around 5:15 a.m.

Fire department crews arrived and began helping pump out water. A fire department boat, police boat and the Coast Guard also responded.

Pumps were able to bring the water level down to 15 inches. The shore power, which was lost earlier in the morning, was restored and boat crews have resumed pumping out water. Seattle Fire Department crews have left the scene.

There were no reports of injuries and all crew members were accounted for. Responders say the vessel is at no threat of sinking into the lake.

Crews at the scene believe the sea chest, a device at the base of the boat that lets in sea water into the boat, may have a leak. Crews plan to send divers to pinpoint the problem.

"They're still trying to assess what's going on inside the ship. They had a couple of explanations, so that's why that want to get divers into the water," said Seattle Fire Department spokesman Kyle Moore.

Moore said no fuel has leaked into the water on Lake Union. The water from the boat is being pumped into a sewage drainage system, so no oily water from the engine room gets into Lake Union.

The Arica has been at the dry dock the past couple of weeks. It was set to go to Alaska on a fishing expedition in January. Boat crews say they don't plan on taking the vessel anywhere until they determine what the problem is.

The captain of the Alaska crabber SEABROOKE recently wrote an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal. He extolled the benefits of the recently adopted quota system in the Bering Sea crab fishery. He states:

"In 2010, commercial fishing once again topped the list of deadliest jobs in the U.S. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fishermen faced a fatality rate 33 times the average U.S. worker.

"Catching crab in the Bering Sea can be treacherous. But most people don't realize that it's become a lot less deadly since 2005, when fishing regulations for Bering Sea crab changed dramatically. The old regulations forced fishermen to race against the clock. To control overfishing, the government set a cap on how much crab fishermen could collectively catch, and we all had to stop when that limit was reached. Some years that meant we had seasons as short as three days. As in a car race, boats used to line up for the minute the season began.

"This intense competition was thrilling but it was also incredibly dangerous. Crabbers worked around the clock, sometimes in terrible weather. There was no time to go back and forth to the docks, so some boats would be overloaded with too many crab pots, making them unstable. The result was that from 1990 to 2005 an average of five crabbers died a year.

"Part of my finger was cut off during a violent storm when I got knocked off of my feet and landed on an air compressor. I decided against going to the hospital to have it stitched back on because I knew the fishing season could end any day and my crew had mortgages to pay. I nearly lost my hand after developing a nasty infection.

"If that accident happened today, there wouldn't be nearly as much pressure to keep fishing. Since August 2005, we fish under a much better system called 'catch shares,' which are also in place in some other fisheries. Now regulators divide up how much crab the fleet can catch among individual fishermen, as opposed to collectively, so we can fish at our own pace during significantly longer seasons. Tighter Coast Guard requirements have also improved safety." "Making the 'Deadliest Catch' Less Deadly," Wall Street Journal, November 14, 2011.

Capt. Campbell concludes: "Crabbing before and after catch shares is like night and day. There's no reason I'd choose to go back to the old derby days."

Capt. Campbell's assessment of the effect of the catch share system is encouraging. However, his account of the severed finger episode reflects an attitude which continues to plague the fishing industry. The determination to maximize profits at the expense of crewmember health and safety could have cost Capt. Campbell his hand. The same impulse has caused countless injuries and deaths in the Alaska fishing industry. It will take much more than suspension of derby fishing to solve the problem.

The NTSB recently completed its investigation into the sinking of the Fishing Vessel Katmai on October 22, 2008.

The National Transportation Safety Board released their report on the disaster, and it concluded that the boat had a number of stability problems that made it unable to withstand extreme storm conditions in the Bering Sea. As a result, seven lives were lost when the head-and-gut vessel flooded in 2008.

The marine accident brief stitches together testimony from the four survivors who were aboard the 92-foot boat. At the time of the sinking, the Katmai was traveling through Amchitka Pass, about 120 miles west of Adak. It was heading toward Unalaska with 120,000 pounds of frozen cod when a severe storm hit. The Katmai lost its ability to steer, and the boat started taking in water just before midnight on October 21, 2008. The skipper called for an evacuation of the boat shortly after that. One of the eleven crew members is believed to have gone down with the ship. Six others were lost when the two life rafts aboard rolled in rough seas. The four survivors were ultimately rescued by the Coast Guard over 15 hours after the sinking.

The National Transportation Safety Board came to many of the same conclusions that the Coast Guard reached during their investigation. They found that the probable cause of the sinking was that watertight doors were left open and that the vessel was carrying twice the recommended amount of cod.

In its report, the Coast Guard listed 35 discrepancies which contributed to cause the sinking of the KATMAI.

Before the LADY MARY sank off Cape May, N.J., in 2009 with the loss of six lives, it had been structurally modified "without consulting a naval architect," federal safety officials said.

The scallop trawler's owners hadn't assessed its stability. The crew didn't realize the importance of keeping the vessel watertight during severe weather. And the vessel's master failed to make an effective Mayday call, officials said.

Those findings were part of a National Transportation Safety Board report this month that made safety recommendations for the nation's commercial fishing industry, which is waiting to see how they will be implemented and what they'll cost to implement.

With the highest fatality rate among all U.S. occupations, the industry has generally welcomed the input.

The Lady Mary's failings are frequently referred to in the NTSB report, which calls on the Coast Guard to establish new standards for commercial fishing industry vessels of 79 feet or less, including measures to improve stability, watertight integrity, and training. Vessels under 79 feet are lost at a higher rate, the Coast Guard has reported.

An NTSB investigation into the sinking of the 71-foot Lady Mary said it was caused by flooding through an access hatch left open during 10- to 12-foot seas, "contrary to safe shipboard practice."

The report this month also recommended that ship owners install recovery devices to rescue anyone who has fallen overboard, and that crew members wear flotation aids at all times while on board and be trained in the use of all emergency equipment.

"While numerous laws have been passed to protect fishing grounds and fish populations, regulations to improve the safety of commercial fishermen are long overdue," NTSB Chair Deborah Hersman said.

In the United States, on average, there were 158 deaths annually from 1992 to 2008 for every 100,000 commercial fishermen, compared with an average of four fatalities per 100,000 workers in all occupations.

The Coast Guard is responsible for offering any new regulations.

Some regulations may mean "more expense," a Coast Guard spokesman stated.

Keith Laudeman, whose Cold Spring Fish & Supply Co. in Cape May owns boats and harvests scallops, said he's in favor of "anything that promotes safety and can save a life."

"The cost is minor compared to saving a life," he said. "We are in a dangerous line of business."

Continue reading "NTSB Makes Fishing Industry Safety Recommendations" »

Those who earn their living at sea have an additional reason to be thankful this year:

The U.S. Supreme Court, and lower courts, have recently made rulings of benefit to injured seamen. The Supreme Court has affirmed the historic principle that a seaman may recover damages if vessel negligence contributed in any degree, no matter how slight, to cause his injury. The Supreme Court has also ruled that punitive damages are available in maritime cases. These damages are awardable where vessel interests have been wilful in failing to provide a seaworthy vessel, or in failing to pay maintenance and cure to an injured seaman.

There are still shoal waters to be navigated in prosecuting a claim for maritime personal injury. But a couple of the available passages have been dredged! For this crewmembers can be thankful.

Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court preserved a legal rule which has for 50 years helped railway workers and Jones Act seamen recover fair compensation for their injuries. Despite a vigorous dissent by the Chief Justice, the majority in CSX Transportation, Inc. v. McBride held that if employer negligence plays any part in causing injury to a railway worker (or seaman), no matter how slight, the employer is liable for damages. This is a more liberal standard than the common law rule of “proximate causation,” and prevents defendants from escaping liability by arguing that employer negligence was not a direct or immediate cause of the injury.

The Jones Act standard of causation is a citadel of seamans’ rights. The lawyers for CSX mounted their assault on the rule by challenging the interpretation given a 1957 Supreme Court decision by every federal circuit court which has considered the issue of causation under the Federal Employer’s Liability Act (“FELA”) and the Jones Act (which incorporates FELA). Justice Ginsberg, writing for the majority, adopted the reasoning of all federal appellate courts and adhered to the rule of causation which has served the interests of justice for half a century.

Ironically, the so-called conservative justices urged that the well-established rule be cast aside. They would have replaced the rule created by Congress as interpreted by the Supreme Court in 1957, with an English common law rule which would have assisted shipowners in avoiding liability for their negligence.

Especially in cases involving mariners, the relaxed standard of causation is justified. The ocean is a dangerous place and crewmembers aboard vessels are at the mercy, not only of the elements, but of those in whose employ they are subjected to the perils of the sea. Above all other employers, shipowners must be held accountable for their carelessness, because the risks are so great and the stakes are so high. With this in mind, English and American courts sitting in admiralty have for centuries treated seamen as their “wards,” whose rights must be jealously guarded.

The decision of the Supreme Court in CSX v. McBride, upholds the ancient judicial tradition of solicitude toward those who go down to the sea in ships. We at Anderson, Connell & Carey applaud the ruling and look forward to continuing the task of securing fair compensation for injured seamen.

The Supreme Court reduced the payout from $2.5 Billion to $507.5 and Exxon Denies Interest is owed. The Supreme Court has left Alaska Fishermen reeling from the June decision reducing the judgment dramatically. Claimants have waited twenty years only to learn that the amount of their compensation has been arbitrarily reduced. Prince William Sound has yet to recover its herring fishery, and salmon prices have never attained the levels before the spill. Residents of Prince William Sound still report finding oil on the beaches near their homes. Citizens and fishermen alike believe that the court's ruling sends the wrong message to corporations. Fishermen in Homer, Cordova, Kodiak and other towns rimming the gulf of Alaska view the ruling as a hand out to big oil and an abandonment of the people's right to punish wrongdoers.