Apparently, at about 2am this morning, a Scalloper ran aground in Rockaway. The Coast Guard's first attempt at rescue failed, as the rescue boat itself capsized. After all the Guardsmen swam to shore, a chopper was dispatched from Atlantic City to finish the job. Kind of surprising at how this all went down. Seeing this photo, my initial thought was 'damn why didn't they just swim to shore'? But the first photo seems to be at low tide, after the swell has subsided considerably. Seems more gnarly when you look at the following picture, taken earlier in the morning: Either way, who am I to judge, in large cold surf, if you're on the job, it makes sense to take it easy and get back to the family in one piece. No sense in dying over scallops. The New York Times .... The Daily News. (Daily News has a nice video angle. As you can see, the waves break like garbage in Rockaway Beach. Any decent swell is a closeout mushfest like this). Here's the capsized Coast Guard boat, with the S.S. Sea Swine in the background. Nice to see everyone made it home in one piece.
Truth of the matter, slash, the reason they did not just swim to shore is because many of the scalloper crew cannot swim at all. That is often the case with fishing boats of all types; crews rely on flotation devices, etc.
Sad, but true. Most fishermen are not surfers, and not used to being in the water... cold water, at that. They are, however, a hearty lot, and most of them have good survival instincts. Still... they die. The Cape May Fisherman's Memorial is proof of that.
This brings me to a question I've debated for a while, but I've never seen it brought up here. If you're a fishing in cold waters and in large swells, why not wear a 6mil suit while you're on deck? I feel like it wouldn't restrict you mobility considering how many layers these guys already have to wear to be out on deck in the winter. Just seems like a no-brainer to me, but maybe someone on here knows why that's not the case.
I considered that ... it's insane to me that someone would spend that much time on a boat if they couldn't swim. My buddy's girl can't swim, he took her to PR, and was planning on kayaking in the bay at night and SUP'ing ... I told him he was an idiot. Life vest or not, that's crazy to me. I've never worked a boat, but I've spent a lot of time working outside in the winter, doing physical work. To me, your standard layering for a 20 degree day is not nearly as restrictive as a 6 mil. That being said ... one of the reports stated that they were wearing their survival suits.
All they're really wearing i addition to regular clothing is fleece pants and jackets under foul weather gear.
Not sure why the CG sent the skiff to tow them off a sandbar/beach/etc. Should have sent out a cutter
Watched a boat get stuck on the beach in DE while surfing one day when I was in high school. They were throwing all their beer overboard as the CG was pulling up. We snagged about 2 cases. HA HA The boat was about a 40 foot sport fisher
Bingo! I have worked on several scallopers. You would be in that wetsuite for 16 hrs a day maybe more possibly for 3-7 days if it wasn't just a day scalloper. That's why you don't wear a wetsuite. Commercial fishing is extremely labor intensive with very long hours and no breaks...mainly because the harder and longer you work the quicker you get off that boat you've been stuck on for a week.
