Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Trying To Tame The (Real) Deadliest Fishing Jobs


Trying To Tame The (Real) Deadliest Fishing Jobs by Curt Nickisch

Boat captain Bill Amaru pilots his trawler, the Joanne-A III, to its mooring in Chatham Harbor on Cape Cod after a cod fishing trip.

  • In a formation called "the worm," crewmen link up to be able to paddle against strong waves and winds to a lifeboat.
On the fishing-boat piers of New England, nearly everyone knows a fisherman who was lost at sea.
Boat captain Joe Neves remembers when a crew member got knocked overboard. "We heard him screaming 'Help me!' " Neves says, grimacing. "But you know, on the water at night, your head is like a little coconut." They didn't find him.
Mike Gallagher discovered a friend who was entangled in still-running hydraulics. "I knew right away he was dead," he says.
And Fred Mattera was fishing 125 miles off the coast of Cape Cod when the 21-year-old son of a close friend succumbed to poisonous fumes in a nearby boat. "That was a brutal week in this port," he says.
The Deadliest Catch
The Bureau of Labor Statistics ranks commercial fishing as the deadliest job in the United States. And despite the popular notion from reality TV's Deadliest Catch, which features Alaskan crab fishermen, the most dangerous American fishery is in the Northeast.
From 2000 to 2009, workers in the Northeast's multi-species groundfish fishery (which includes fish such as cod and haddock) were 37 times more likely to die on the job as a police officer.
A National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health report shows that 70 percent of those deaths and those in the second-deadliest fishery, Atlantic scallops, followed disasters such as a vessel catching fire, capsizing or sinking. Most of the rest came from onboard injuries or falling overboard — often caused by heavy overhead equipment.
Not one of those who fell overboard and drowned was wearing a life jacket.
An investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, NPR News and WBUR in Boston found that despite earning the odious ranking as America's deadliest job, commercial fishing in the Northeast operates in a cultural tradition and regulatory environment that thwarts promising safety measures.
Out To Sea, Out Of Mind
Despite the strikingly high fatality rate in the fishing industry, pushes for reform have taken decades to come to fruition. In 1988, Congress required fishing boats to carry life boats, personal flotation devices and other safety equipment.
Yet while the Coast Guard mandates seaworthiness inspections of passenger ferries and other commercial vessels, fishing boats are not inspected.
"We've ... requested authority to do inspections on vessels," says Jack Kemerer, chief of the fishing vessels division of the Coast Guard. Congress did not include that power in the U.S. Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010.
"So I can't answer why or why not," Kemerer says. "But, you know, it's not that we haven't asked for it in the past."
The Last Of The Ocean Cowboys
Most fishermen don't want to be supervised. Some are fatalistic about their life on the seas. New England fishermen used to buy steel-toed boots, believing that if they fell into the frigid Atlantic, it was better to drown faster. Others espouse a rugged individualism and see themselves as the last cowboys on the ocean.
At Chatham Harbor on Cape Cod, Bill Amaru runs one of the last cod-fishing boats from a harbor that used to be so prolific, fish markets labeled cod Chathams. Now, strict federal rules limit how much he can catch. Many other cod fishermen have gone out of business. Amaru doesn't like the idea of the feds inspecting his boat.
"If there's a resentment to these kinds of rules," Amaru says as he moors his boat in the harbor, "it's based on the overall huge number of regulations that have come down on our industry in the last decade — so much federal 'nanny state,' kind of telling us how to operate — when I think I have a pretty good understanding of what I need to do to keep safe."
Still, the 2010 law requires boat owners like Amaru to prove that their safety equipment is up to date. Coast Guard checks have forced many fishermen to throw out old and disintegrating life rafts, and replace the expired batteries from their emergency signal beacons.
But just because a boat has updated safety gear doesn't mean the crew knows how to use it.
'We Will Make This A Safer Industry'
When Fred Mattera raced his boat to help fishermen overcome by poisonous fumes in a nearby boat in 2001, he didn't know exactly what to do to help them. The radio was no help, either.
"What I heard there was this hodgepodge [of] try this, try that," Mattera remembers. "And nobody knew for certain."
When 21-year-old Steven Follett, the son of a close friend, died, Mattera was frustrated. Some people in port called him a hero for trying. "Being a hero is ... someone survives," he says, shaking his head.
Mattera told his friend he would make good come from the loss of life. "I just said, I promise you, we need to change the culture. We will make this a safer industry."
The incident turned Mattera into a safety evangelist. Earlier this month, he helped the crews of two boats organize a disaster training and man-overboard exercise.
'Get Your Panic Out Now!'
In one exercise, crew members clumsily put on bright orange-red survival suits. Insulated, watertight and buoyant, the suits cover each fisherman from head to toe; only their faces are exposed. They step off the boat into the calm dockside water. But even in these conditions, wearing what some guys call a "Gumby suit" feels claustrophobic to some, and they thrash around until they get their bearings.
"Get your panic out now!" Fred Matter shouts from the deck. The crew members are practicing abandoning ship in the case of a fire or capsizing. The immersion suits are designed to keep them alive and afloat in the icy Atlantic until someone can rescue them.
Mattera coaches them to link up with each other back-to-back and paddle together over to a life raft and climb in.
When it's all over, the crew looks winded.
"There's a 'Holy crap!' issue to it," boat captain Norbert Stamps says of the training. "You jump in, you kind of realize that this isn't fun and games. This is real serious stuff. And you gotta practice, and you gotta know what to expect."
Crew member Mike Gallagher says fishermen-organized trainings are becoming more common. "To be honest with you," he says, "the safety thing hasn't really been paid much attention to until the past several years. Really, it's been overlooked."
Learning From Alaska
Alaskan waters had been viewed as the most hazardous place for commercial fishing — that is, until a closer focus on safety reduced the number of fatalities in those fisheries.
"I believe that fishermen want to be safe," says National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health epidemiologist Jennifer Lincoln, who's based in Alaska. "They just want things to be practical. They want the solutions to really address the hazards that exist."
In Alaska, fishermen, state regulators and the Coast Guard have worked together to make fishing less deadly:
  • Bering Sea crabbing boats now transport fewer crab pots when they head out to sea. In turn, that weight limit prevented capsizing. Fatalities fell by 60 percent.
  • Because capsizing often occurred in deaths of Alaska's salmon fishermen, skiff operators are now allowed the option of leaving immersion suits off their small boats, as long as they wear a life preserver at all times.
  • Pilot projects with life preservers designed for their working conditions encouraged scallop boats to require crew members to wear them.
That kind of safety progress is what Fred Mattera and others want to replicate in the Northeast, the home of today's deadliest catch. Since that deadly accident in 2001, Mattera has trained hundreds of fishermen at Point Judith in Narragansett, R.I. But he's not done.
"I'm just a fisherman," Mattera says. "That's what I loved, and that's what I did for a long time. I promised a family we'd make a difference. [As long as] I'm still breathing, that's what we're going to strive to do."
Mattera hopes that someday, the deadliest job in America will only be as dangerous as it has to be, and not one bit more.
Our stories about dangers in the commercial fishing industry were jointly reported by the Center for Public Integrity, WBUR in Boston and NPR News. The stories are part of CPI's Hard Labor series on workplace safety.

Monday, August 13, 2012

U.S. says Hezbollah is helping Syrian regime


U.S. says Hezbollah is helping Syrian regime

By Karen DeYoung and Anne Gearan, Published: August 10


The Obama administration charged Friday that Lebanon-based Hezbollah is directly assisting Syria’s brutal domestic military crackdown and announced new sanctions against the group and the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The announcements were timed to precede Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s meetings on Saturday with Syrian opposition leaders in Turkey. Clinton also plans to pledge an additional $5.5 million in U.S. humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees.
A look at the Syrian uprising one year later. Thousands of Syrians have died and President Bashar al-Assad remains in power, despite numerous calls by the international community for him to step down. Move could provoke a backlash from the military. The new measures are unlikely to placate Syrian rebel forces who have asked for U.S. military equipment and aerial protection in their increasingly bloody fight against Assad. Nor are they likely to please critics at home who say that President Obama is sitting on the sidelines of a humanitarian crisis and a battle that threatens U.S. security interests in the region, current and former U.S. officials said.
In sessions with Assad opponents and Turkish government leaders, Clinton plans to discuss options that do not go as far as direct U.S. intervention. The one-day stop follows her 10-day trip to Africa.
“She certainly will be looking to see whether there is anything else we can do that will have a positive impact rather than a detrimental impact on the overall situation in Syria,” a senior State Department official said Friday.
The cautious U.S. policy could change, as it did last year in Libya, despite the administration’s concern that adding arms to the volatile and increasingly sectarian civil war in Syria would only make things worse.
Clinton is looking for a “clear picture of the effectiveness of what we are currently providing and how it can be made more effective, and then whether or not there are additional things we can do,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans for the meetings.
But skepticism about the utility of any military assistance, a lack of international consensus and the upcoming U.S. presidential election make the possibility of any near-term military operation appear remote.
“I just don’t see it coming that fast, with or without the election,” another senior U.S. official said earlier this week, although that official and others agreed that domestic politics have complicated the response to the Syria crisis.
Amid fears that extremists are gaining strength within rebel ranks, some administration officials have argued internally that increased U.S. involvement would improve the likelihood of a democratic outcome and provide greater U.S. influence with the government that eventually replaces Assad. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said the United States should work with allies who are already supplying weapons to the rebels.
Armed with some tanks and heavy weapons supplied by Persian Gulf states or captured from the Assad army, the rebels have made significant gains in recent days, although not enough to shift the military balance of the 17-month conflict. On Friday, rebel forces acknowledged losing ground in the face of heavy government bombardment in the city of Aleppo but said they were preparing a counterattack, Reuters reported.
Residents were reported to be streaming out of the city into suburbs and a newly opened corridor into Turkey that is said to be controlled by the opposition but still under government artillery and air attack.
Obama has not ruled out any options in Syria, but White House counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan said this week that opposition forces there are already “awash in weaponry.” There is little indication that a war-weary American public favors intervention in Syria.
</fb:like></span><span id=check-twitter> The United States holds no uniform view of Assad’s staying power, with estimates ranging up to many months if he retains enough loyalty in his armed forces. But the pace of defections from his government and the growing military ability of the rebels have hastened the need for planning to head off a chaotic collapse of basic services and to prevent a security vacuum, officials said.
The administration is trying to expand its contact with political opposition figures beyond expatriate groups that have so far failed to mobilize support in Syria. Officials would not provide details about Clinton’s planned meetings in Istanbul but said the meetings would include activists who recently fled Syria or who travel in and out of the country.
The new U.S. sanctions on Hezbollah are likely to have more symbolic than substantive effect. The Shiite militia, whose political wing dominates the government in neighboring Lebanon, has long been supported by Iran and Syria. The Treasury Department first designated Hezbollah a “Global Terrorist” group in 1995, prohibiting U.S. financial transactions with it and freezing its assets.
Treasury Undersecretary David Cohen said the new action, focused on activities specifically related to Syria, was “not solely focused on the immediate financial impact” but was designed “to expose” Hezbollah activity in that country.
“As the wave of revolt has spread across the Middle East,” Cohen said, “Hezbollah leadership has publicly supported some protests where it suited their needs, and in other cases, such as in Syria, it has actively supported the violent crackdown being carried out by the Syrian dictatorship.”
Cohen and Daniel Benjamin, the State Department’s counterterrorism coordinator, declined to provide specifics about long-rumored Hezbollah participation in Assad’s military operation but said it included “extensive” logistical and operational support, as well as training and advice.
“This is not a matter of idle speculation or press reports,” Benjamin said.
“We’re obviously very sensitive here to issues of sources and methods,” he said, but added, “It’s safe to say that Hezbollah is playing a critical role in advising the Syrian government and its personnel in how to prosecute a counterinsurgency.”
Benjamin said that information had been compiled in an “authoritative document” distributed to other governments in hopes that they will take similar action against Hezbollah.
Separately, the administration imposed new sanctions on Syria’s state-run oil company, Sytrol, under the Iran Sanctions Act, which sharply limits energy-sector trade.
According to Treasury, Syrian shipments in April of 33,000 metric tons of gasoline to Iran — worth $36 million — benefited both countries, with Iran paying Syria with diesel fuel, used in military vehicles.
Since Syrian government entities are already subject to U.S. sanctions, the action primarily serves the broad purpose of drawing attention “to the really serious and deep relationships between the Iranian and Syrian regimes and the support that the Iranian regime has been providing to the Syrian government,” a senior administration official said.
Asked what the effect of the new actions would be, White House spokesman Jay Carney said, “The desired result is to continue to press the Assad regime, to continue to isolate it, and to expose the fact that Assad’s friends — and he has very few — are Iran and Hezbollah.”
Gearan reported from Accra, Ghana.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

How can your small business create a strong corporate culture? Here are 10tips.


  1. Take responsibility. Every business has a corporate culture-a collection of shared values, traditions and goals that make it unique. The difference is, strong corporate cultures arise consciously, shaped by the business owner, while weak ones arise accidentally from neglect.
  2. Create a mission statement. Your company's mission statement, which clearly conveys your business's goals, philosophy and unique differentiators in a sentence or two, will be a reference point for developing and maintaining your corporate culture.
  3. Keep it authentic. Corporate culture should be a natural outgrowth of your business's mission, your industry, your customers and even your personality. Don't try to "force" a corporate culture that's not authentic. IBM has one corporate culture; Zappos has a very different one. Each is authentic to the business involved.
  4. Involve your team. Although you are a key driver of your business's corporate culture, that doesn't mean you can impose it from the top down. Involve your employees in fine-tuning your mission statement and determining what kind of culture they want to create.
  5. Create rituals. Rituals, stories and rites of passage help create and sustain corporate culture. Whether it's a weekly Friday pizza lunch, a celebration for employees who reach certain milestones or just the stories you tell when you welcome new employees to the team, create rituals that convey your corporate culture.
  6. Hire for fit. Look for job candidates whose personalities and attitudes mesh with your culture. Fit is more important than skill. A job candidate might have years of experience, but if he or she is uptight and rigid while your culture is loose and fun, the new hire won't be happy-and neither will you.
  7. Express your corporate culture in everything you do. Everything from the design of your office or stores, to the appearance and tone of your marketing materials, to the way your employees interact with customers should clearly convey your corporate culture to the outside world.
       
  8. Don't confuse "culture" with "crazy." Wacky corporate cultures get a lot of attention these days, but being zany on the outside doesn't mean slacking off. Build rigor, ethics and responsibility into your corporate culture to create a firm foundation for growth.
         
  9. Check in periodically. Three out of four executives in an MWW Group survey say their corporate culture is the major driver of their business's reputation, but just 5 percent felt their company's culture was strong enough to prevent a reputational crisis. Assess your corporate culture periodically to make sure it's still working for your business.
       
  10. Be ready to change. Nothing stays static in business today, and the corporate culture that works when your company is in the early stages may need to evolve as your business grows. If your corporate culture needs a tune-up, don't be afraid to make changes.