Jerry Dzugan and Mike Heryla wrapped up a Marine Safety Instructor Training (MSIT) workshop in Seattle last Saturday. Hosted by partner organization, NPFVOA, the workshop brought together mariners from across the U.S. for an intensive, six-day, train-the-trainer course for marine safety instructors. We are excited to welcome our newest AMSEA instructors!
Dave Shoemaker, Ray Sayah, and Jared Nelson will be instructing commercial fishermen at NPFVOA. Observer trainers, Gordon Alford and Rochelle Barainca will be instructing fisheries observers for the NOAA fisheries observer program.
We have two new instructors from Massachusetts partner organization, Fishing Partnership Support Services, Russell Kingman and Shannon Eldredge. Not only are they commercial fishermen and intent on training others in marine safety, but they are talented musicians. You can hear a sample of their music here.
Shannon Ward, who setnet fishes for salmon in Bristol Bay, looks forward to instructing commercial fishermen. She has her own amazing survival story after losing her boat, the Paul Revere. Click here to listen to her story and the story of her crew.
Matt Kniskern, Steve Amsler, and Daniel North work for Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission, enforcing fishing regulations on Lake Superior. They plan to use their training in their daily work, help to prepare other Commission staff for marine emergencies, and perhaps train commercial fishermen.
Erika Weber teaches at Seattle Maritime Academy and Michael LaBarge is an assistant professor at the University of Alaska Southeast Ketchikan. Both will be teaching marine safety at their schools.
Caitlin Miller works at Spindrift Drift Ocean Rowing. The company builds ocean rowing boats. Caitlin wants to help prepare their customers for the rigors of offshore rowing by instructing them on marine safety and cold-water survival. Caitlin rowed across the Atlantic Ocean as part of mixed-pair team in 2016. Read about about that here.
With a commercial fishing background, Kelley Watson is a Maritime Career and Technical Education Teacher at the Port Townsend School District. Sonia Frojen is the School Program Coordinator at Port Townsend's, Northwest Maritime Center. They are working to provide young people with marine safety training ans part of their career training programs in the marine industries.
Thank you Mike Heryla for helping to teach the class and NPFVOA for hosting and assisting in too many ways to count. We also thank Seattle Maritime Academy for the use of their facility and Mike Rudolph and the Portland, Oregon Commercial Fishing Safety Examiner office for their invaluable assistance. Thank you, also to our hardworking MSIT graduates. Welcome to the AMSEA instructor network. We look forward to working with each of you!
Would you like to bring marine safety training to your workplace, school, or community? Join our instructor network! Our next Marine Safety Instructor Instructor Training workshop will be in Seward, Alaska April 24-29, 2018.