By Debbie Preston Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

NEAH BAY — When the decision is made to abandon a fishing boat, crew members may only have a few minutes before the vessel sinks.

Their survival often hinges on whether they are able to get into their survival suits before the boat slips beneath the waves.

Makah tribal fishermen learn how hard it can be to get into the gear quickly as part of a safety-at-sea course that at least one crewman of all commercial fishing vessels is required to take each year.

“It’s not a lot of time,” said Vernon Soeneke Jr., skipper of the Brookfield, who recently took the course with nearly all of his crew.

“But I feel better now that we’ve gone over this as a crew. We are going to do drills and practice, too.”

The chilly waters of the Pacific can kill in less than 20 minutes. Wearing a survival suit and deploying a raft increase survival chances many times over.

Crew practices

Crew members practiced getting into their suits after locating a fake fire on a boat, jumping in the water and swimming to an enclosed survival craft.

James Rollins, one of Soeneke’s crew, likened the drill to his Army training.

“You had eight seconds to get your gas mask on, and you had to hold your breath for that time,” he said.

“We practiced and practiced until it was automatic.”

Soeneke said that, though he had fished for 25 years, “when you watch a video of how fast a vessel goes down, it’s pretty sobering.

“I looked around the room, and it was pretty quiet.

“Having a class like this makes me feel more comfortable about keeping my wife’s daughter safe. It’s her first year on the water.”

Damage control

Along with emergency evacuation, fishermen practiced vessel damage control at the Neah Bay Coast Guard Station using a special vessel designed to simulate many kinds of leaks on a boats.

They assembled leak fix kits that included old inner tubes, wooden shims and special tape.

“OK, who’s gonna fix it?” asked Coast Guard marine inspector Robin Kendall as a new leak sprang on the device.

Teams of two or three sprang into action, pounding wooden shims or stuffing inner tubing into a leak and wrapping it with specialized pipe tape.

Equally prized was discussion from the fishermen about emergencies they had experienced and how they dealt with it.

“Keep talking — this is valuable information,” Kendall said.

Like all emergency kits, the vessel damage control kit needs to be checked regularly to make sure crucial supplies haven’t been used and not replaced, Kendall said.

Instructors also underscored the need to get back to port immediately to make the permanent fix instead of trying to continue to fish with a problem that could lead to sinking.

“These drills make you think,” Soeneke said.

“Communication is key, and we’re going to work on making sure we are prepared if something goes wrong.”

The annual course has been co-sponsored by Washington Sea Grant and the Makah tribe for 12 years. A separate First Aid at Sea course has been offered for the past five years.

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Debbie Ross-Preston is the coastal information officer for Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.