Radio Script
1998

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Fisherman Deaths Decline in Alaska
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STORY: So far this year, four commercial fishermen have died at sea off Alaska. One man died when an 800-pound crab pot fell on him. Another drowned an agonizing death when the crab pot he'd climbed inside of accidentally fell overboard and plunged to the bottom of the sea.

But for all the horror these stories evoke, commercial fishing is safer now than at any time in Alaska's history. Jennifer Lincoln is a researcher with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Anchorage.

LINCOLN: "In the 1970s you heard of 60 people being killed each year, and in the '80s you heard of 40 to 50 people being killed. And now in the '90s the number has dropped way down." Safety experts credit the lives saved with laws that require that fishermen have life rafts, cold water survival suits and emergency beacons that help rescuers locate them. But Captain Vince O'Shea of the U.S. Coast Guard says fishermen also have changed attitudes about safety.

O'SHEA: "We're seeing what I would say an acceptance of safety as a culture in this industry. I've been working with commercial fishermen for over 25 years, and used to be a commercial fisherman myself. A lot of that in the past was a macho image. It was not macho to be safe. That whole dynamic is changing now."

But while the number of people dying at sea is down, the number of ships sinking has remained about the same. Vince O'Shea spent years as the captain of a Coast Guard cutter in the North Pacific Ocean. He says Alaska's unpredictable seas will claim ships, but they don't have to claim lives.

O'SHEA: The important thing is that when that happens now, fishermen have the communication equipment to call us, the emergency locator beacons, life rafts and survivals suits. So a sinking years ago was a situation where we'd go out and recover the bodies. Now we go pick up the people and they're still alive. We like that business a lot better."

OUTRO: For Arctic Science Journeys, this is Doug Schneider reporting from Fairbanks, Alaska.