Berschler & Draluck
Maritime Attorneys
Pandemic safety measures for the fishing industry are largely voluntary in Washington state, and not all companies follow them.
Since late May, 110 crew members from three ships have fallen ill. The workers, many of them immigrants with green cards, hail from 29 states and an unknown number of countries, according to Washington Department of Health epidemiologist Marisa D’Angeli.
American Seafoods tested all its workers for Covid-19 before they boarded their vessels in mid-May, and took other safety measures on board, but only quarantined its workers for five days before letting them get to work. American Seafoods spokesperson Suzanne Lagoni said she did not know how the company arrived at a five-day quarantine.
“They were using different protocols than the rest of the industry,” Joshua Berger, with the Washington Department of Commerce, said. There were no coronavirus
cases on Washington-based ships or seafood processing plants that
followed the recommended protocols.
After the Covid-19 outbreaks, American Seafoods announced on June 5 that it was switching to the 14-day quarantine recommended by the state and the fishing industry.
(Adapted from a news report from KUOW/NPR on June 19, 2020. The full report can be found here.)
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BERSCHLER & DRALUCK
Maritime Attorneys
720 Seneca St Suite 107-2
Seattle, WA 98101
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