The Coast Guard will be making safety checks until Thursday in Naknek and Dillingham.
Skippers and crewmen were making preparations to get their boats in the water in Naknek on Saturday. For most, that meant a safety inspection from the Coast Guard.
“We just do a walk around the vessel, make sure the hull doesn’t have anything that would keep it from being safe before they go into the water," said Chief Petty Officer Cody Howard with U.S. Coast Guard who made quick but detailed work as he inspects F/V Maverick at Leader Creek in Naknek.
Onboard, Chief Petty Officer Howard makes sure the lifesaving gear is in order. After checking all the immersion suits, he offers up a tip for how to store the rope for the life ring.
“Just a strip of electrical tape and put it together with one wrap of electrical tape you can pull it apart really easily. If you have it knotted up like that and you need to throw it, you’re never going to get it untied,” suggested Howard.
Howard also checks the vessel documents before giving finally approval. The safety decal goes in the window and is valid for two years inside the three mile federal boundary line.
He says having the sticker doesn’t guarantee you won’t be boarded for a safety check while fishing but there is a much better chance you will not be picked over someone else if you have the sticker and the other vessel does not.
The demand to get the safety checks done before fishing starts is high. Howard will probably be checking 30 to 60 boats a day until he heads back to Anchorage at the end of the week. While finishing up with the Maverick, his cell phone rang.
"You got one that you need?" Howard asked the skipper on the other end of the line looking to schedule an inspection. "OK, we’ll get you tomorrow morning. Sometime before lunch time we’ll go through there and we’ll get you."
And with that, Chief Petty Officer Howard is on to the vessel. The Coast Guard will be making these inspections in Dillingham and Naknek until Thursday.
Contact Matt Martin at (907)-842-2200 or matt@kdlg.org.