AMSEA Safety Courses Coming Up in April and May

Spaces are still available for a variety of fishing vessel and cold water safety courses from mid- April and through May, offered by the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association in Sitka.

The fishing vessel drill conductor workshop at Cordova on April 15 will cover cold-water survival skills, emergency position-indicating radio beacon stations (EPIRBs), flares and maydays; man-overboard recovery and firefighting; immersion suits and personal floatation devices, helicopter rescue, life rafts, abandon ship procedures and emergency drills.

There will be an in-the-water practice session, giving participants practical experience with PFDs and immersion suits, employing survival techniques, and righting and boarding an inflatable life raft.

The same course will be conducted in Dillingham April 20-21. Enrollment for that course in Haines on April 26-27 is already closed, but there are spots left in the marine safety instructor training course at Seward April 25-30.

Other AMSEA courses in Alaska in May include the fishing vessel drill conductor course at Seward May 1, at Anchorage May 6-7, at Sitka May 9, and Unalaska May 26-28.

AMSEA drill conductor workshops meet training requirements for drill conductors on board documented commercial fishing vessels operating beyond the federal boundary line.

AMSEA advises that this is an excellent opportunity for commercial fishermen and other mariners to gain hands-on training with marine safety equipment and learn best practices for surviving emergencies at sea.

Interested mariners may register at www.amsea.org or call 1-907-747-3287.