Look out for the ladder cops

A fishing vessel owner tells Deckboss he was surprised a few days ago when a U.S. Coast Guard boarding team issued his skipper a ticket for lack of a pilot ladder onboard.

The owner shared a copy of the ticket with us.

The ladder regulation hadn't been enforced previously — boarding teams never asked for a ladder during numerous boardings, he said, and no one ever asked to see one during dockside exams.

The boat involved in the Jan. 21 boarding was a 58-footer fishing cod in the Bering Sea out of False Pass. The boarding team was from the Coast Guard cutter Alex Haley.

The boarding team told the skipper they were "starting now" to enforce the ladder requirement, the fishing vessel owner said.

A pilot ladder is a flexible ladder lowered over the side of a vessel to aid people coming aboard.

Such ladders are helpful, as it's always perilous to climb from boat to boat.

This recent enforcement action begs the question: Are we seeing a crackdown on the pilot ladder requirement?

The vessel owner noted that pilot ladders are bulky, and expensive.

Scott Wilwert, the Coast Guard's fishing vessel safety program manager for Alaska, told us he was not aware of any big enforcement push on pilot ladders.

But fishermen should be aware that if their vessel has more than 4 feet of freeboard, federal regulations require a boarding ladder to assist law enforcement personnel and fishery observers, Wilwert said.

Freeboard can change considerably depending on whether the fishing vessel is tanked down, he noted.

The False Pass vessel had a freeboard of 5 feet, 6 inches, the ticket said.