Report says sealers should be taken off boat during hazardous ice tows
Published Monday December 1st, 2008
HALIFAX, N.S. - The coast guard should make it standard practice to leave the "absolute minimum" of crew aboard small vessels when they tow them through ice, says a report into the deaths of four sealers from Quebec.
The 102-page independent report, prepared for the Fisheries Department, says the captain of the coast guard ship Sir William Alexander decided to leave all six sealers on board L'Acadien II last spring believing it was too dangerous to transfer them over treacherous pack ice to the larger ship.
With the exception of one man at the helm, all of the crew from the Iles de la Madeleine had gone below for rest when the accident occurred.
When the vessel smashed into a piece of ice at 1 a.m. on March 29, three of the men were trapped below and drowned. A fourth man was never found.
The Fisheries Department report written by retired rear admiral Roger Girouard recommends the development of a singular towing policy for the coast guard.
Girouard said that should include a fresh set of seamanship standards, such as when to bring crew members from a stricken vessel on board.
His report concludes the coast guard followed set procedures by leaving the six sealers on board and conducting the tow.
He said it was "reasonable" to leave the crew of L'Acadien II on board, given that the tow started in the dark, and there was a "very real risk of someone falling through the ice."
But the retired naval officer said in the future, coast guard commanders should make taking crew off sealing vessels a higher priority.
"The default mode now is, leave the people aboard. What I'm proposing is make the default be to get them off," he told a news conference.
The final report also stands by a finding in a draft report, which stated the crew on the coast guard icebreaker could have done more than read a liability waiver to the fishermen on the stricken sealing boat about the dangers of being towed.
The final report says there should have been "a more fulsome discussion of the actual risks of the tow, including the issues of ice, the disparity in the size of the vessels and the potential, though remote, of capsizing."
The Fisheries Department report is the second investigation to be released in less than a week on the accident.
In a separate report released last Wednesday, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said the clutch on the sealing boat that was likely engaged when it sank, causing it to fatally veer sharply off course and into the path of a large ice pack.
Officials with the TSB said L'Acadien II either intentionally or accidentally had the clutch engaged in idle mode just as it emerged from pack ice into open water.
Both inquiries conclude that forward motion was enough to cause the vessel to veer sharply to port, and into the path of the oncoming piece of ice.
Girouard's study suggests that if the clutch was engaged by a crew member, it was likely by accident.
His key recommendation for a fresh set of towing policies largely echoed those of the safety board, which also called upon the Fisheries Department to develop safe towing practices for fishing vessels operating in ice.
The coast guard now relies on towing guidelines in a seamanship manual, which state crew should monitor the tow, maintain regular communications, remove crew from the vessel when necessary and get crew to don personal flotation devices.
Girouard says those policies now need a full review, but the agency should also set up an interim policy prior to next spring's ice season in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
He also said it's time for the coast guard to look at more modern equipment for towing, including a "quick-release mechanism" for the tow line.
Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea said a special team would be set up to analyze the two reports, as well as a search and rescue operations report produced by the Defence Department's Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax
The team will be led by a senior coast guard officer, Shea said in a statement.
"The team will report regularly to me on its progress and their plan will be made public early in the new year," the minister said. "We will also share with the public the actions we take to ensure that this kind of tragedy is never repeated."
Marc-Andre Deraspe, Bruno Bourque, Gilles Leblanc and Carl Aucoin died in the accident. Water rushed into their boat when it went capsized while three sealers - including the captain - slept in their bunks below.
The TSB said two lookouts were posted on the quarterdeck of the coast guard ship and were supplied with portable radios to maintain direct communication with the bridge.
They were also there to sever the tow line in the event of an emergency, but both Girouard's report and the TSB say they weren't able to sever the line quickly enough to prevent the capsizing.
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However what is always neglected in the report is the reason these fishing boats are being towed in the first place.In most incidents when these fishing boats are being towed in the first place is because the fisherman either allow themselves to run out of fuel because they don't want to stop fishing when it is good. Or because they fail to maintain their boats. Because of neglect they suffer mechanical failure. If these fisherman had to pay for coast guard vessels to tow them, much like we have to do on highways when your car breaks down. I can guarentee that the number of calls for tows would drastically decrease.