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Emergency drill class prepares Dillingham fishermen

Matt Martin/KDLG

The Alaska Marine Safety Education Association held a drill conductor certification class at the MAP school in Dillingham this week. 

Students in the safety drill class ran threw a fire drill in the gym of the middle school Thursday afternoon.

On Wednesday, the class had squeezed into survival suits and swam around the boat harbor. They had planned to run the final drills Thursday on the wood river but bad weather forced them into the gym. A lunch table stood in to represent the wheelhouse and a red sheet of paper was the fire. Ron Bowers taught the class.

"They're doing safety drills on fishing boats. They are four Coast Guard required drills for commercial fishing vessels operating outside the near shore boundary line," said Bowers. "Its soon going to go to a strict three miles off shore after October 1st."

Ethan Schilling works on a tender. This is the first time he has taken a class like this one. In addition to learning what to do in an emergency he says he learned some useful rules for working in the fishery.

"A lot of history about Alaskan fishery, and a lot of Alaskan past experiences and the new regulations that are going to be instated here."

Schilling says he knows much more than he did two days ago. Fifteen people took the class. Ron Bowers says each student got an opportunity to learn each role in an emergency because you never know who will be the man overboard. 

Contact Matt Martin at (907)842-2200 or matt@kdlg.org.