Issue: June 2023

Polar Star Home After Operation Deep Freeze

Polar Star Home After Operation Deep Freeze

On April 10, the Coast Guard cutter Polar Star and its crew returned to Seattle following a 144-day deployment to Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze 2023. This was the Polar Star’s 26th voyage to Antarctica for Operation Deep Freeze, which is an annual joint military service mission to resupply the United States Antarctic stations, in support of the National Science Foundation, the lead agency for the U.S. Antarctic Program. This year marks the 63rd iteration of the annual operation. The Polar Star is a 399-foot heavy polar icebreaker commissioned in 1976. It weighs 13,500 tons and is 84-feet wide with a 34-foot draft. The vessel has six diesel and three gas turbine engines able to produce up to 75,000 horsepower. The cutter left Seattle for Antarctica on Nov. 12, a journ...
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Commercial Fishing Near Miss/Close Calls Program Development

Commercial Fishing Near Miss/Close Calls Program Development

As the old trope goes, wise men learn from their own mistakes, but wiser men learn from the mistakes of others. It’s also a lot less expensive. So, how can vessel operators learn from their own mistakes without injuring anyone and incurring the costs? Wouldn’t it be more effective to learn from the near misses/close calls of other fishermen in similar regions or fisheries in order to lessen injuries on their own vessels? AMSEA is looking for fishermen who want to help evaluate an anonymous, cost-free, near-miss reporting system on their own vessel. AMSEA is working with NIOSH (the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) and the ABS Group to develop a type of reporting system in which operators can share examples of close calls that have occurred on their own vessels wit...
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