USCG safety alert: Lifesaving equipment stowage on CFVs

The United States Coast Guard issued Safety Alert 01-25 to address hazardous stowage of lifesaving equipment on commercial fishing vessels (CFVs) following two recent marine casualties. Both incidents demonstrated the critical importance of proper storage and accessibility of lifesaving equipment to ensure the safety of crew members during emergencies.

In the first incident, a 41-foot CFV capsized and sank within two minutes after taking on water. The personal flotation devices (PFDs) were not stored in a location that could be easily accessed by the crew. As a result, the crew was unable to retrieve the PFDs before abandoning the vessel. Additionally, the vessel's liferaft and its hydrostatic release unit were improperly attached to an aftermarket fiberglass canopy. This canopy broke away and floated free during the capsizing, preventing the automatic deployment of the liferaft. Fortunately, one crew member managed to swim to the floating canopy and manually deploy the liferaft, averting a worse outcome.

In the second incident, a 60-foot CFV caught fire, forcing the crew to evacuate rapidly. Although the crew retrieved PFDs before abandoning the vessel, these were not stored in a readily accessible location. Instead, the PFDs were stowed in the galley beneath bench seating, far from the crew’s normal workstations such as the bridge or aft deck. Additionally, the vessel's throwable liferaft was stored under an internal pilothouse ladder located directly above the engine room, where the fire originated. The intensity of the fire made it impossible for the crew to retrieve the liferaft before abandoning the vessel.

To prevent similar hazardous situations, the Coast Guard strongly recommends that CFV operators take the following actions:

Ensure that automatically deployable liferafts are securely attached to strong, permanent, and original structures on the vessel, with no overhead or nearby obstructions that could interfere with their float-free deployment.
Stow manually deployable liferafts in compliance with U.S. Coast Guard requirements under 46 CFR 28.125, which mandate that they be stored in locations that are readily accessible for deployment during emergencies.
Store PFDs in locations that are easy for all crew members to access, ideally in a manner that would allow them to float free in the event of a capsizing.