Injuries During Alaska’s Bering Sea A-Season: What Fishermen Need to Know About Their Rights

The Bering Sea’s A-season is a sprint: short weather windows, heavy gear, tight delivery schedules, and relentless production on factory trawlers and catcher boats. From January through early spring, crews race to harvest pollock and other species in some of the harshest conditions on earth. With darkness, ice, and pounding seas, it’s no surprise that injuries spike during A-season. If you’re hurt on deck, in the factory, or during a tender transfer, you have powerful rights under maritime law—including the Jones Act and unseaworthiness doctrine—to get medical care and full compensation. This page explains common A-season hazards, your legal rights after an injury, and the practical steps to protect your claim.

Why A-Season Is So Dangerous

Weather and ice: Gale-force winds, freezing spray, and rogue seas make decks slick and visibility poor. Ice buildup increases slip hazards and adds top-heavy instability that can trigger violent rolls.

Fatigue: Long strings of tows or back-to-back factory shifts push crews into exhaustion. Fatigue slows reaction time and magnifies risk around winches, blocks, doors, trawl gear, conveyors, and plate freezers.

High-tempo operations: Pressure to keep the lines moving can lead to short-cuts in lock-out/tag-out, guarding, or communication during gear changes, fish transfers, and factory maintenance.

Complex machinery: On factory trawlers, injuries often involve pinch points, unguarded nip hazards, malfunctioning e-stops, or inadequate guarding on head-and-gutters, fillet machines, and plate freezers.

Transfers and tenders: Moving crew or catch in rough seas—ladders, platforms, or small-boat transfers—creates crush, fall, and man-overboard risks, especially when platforms are iced or poorly lit.

Common A-Season Injuries

• Slips and falls on icy decks or ladders
• Line snaps, block failures, and winch entanglements
• Crush injuries to hands and feet; amputations in factory machinery
• Shoulder, back, and knee trauma from heavy lifts and sudden vessel motions
• Cold injuries (frostbite, hypothermia) and wet-cold exposure illnesses
• Head injuries and concussions from swinging doors or gear
• Chemical burns and freezer burns in processing areas

Your Core Maritime Rights After an Injury

If you are a seaman—a crewmember with a substantial connection to a vessel in navigation (including factory trawlers, catcher boats, tenders, and skiffs)—you are generally protected by these remedies:

1) Maintenance and Cure (No-Fault Benefits)

• Maintenance pays your reasonable daily living expenses while you recover off the vessel (rent, utilities, food—not luxury items).
• Cure covers all reasonable and necessary medical treatment related to the injury—ER visits, surgery, imaging, prescriptions, therapy, and travel for care—until you reach maximum medical improvement (MMI).
• You have the right to choose your own doctor. The company cannot force you to use its “company clinic” or cut off treatment prematurely.
• If the company unreasonably refuses or delays maintenance and cure, you may seek penalties and attorneys’ fees in addition to your medical costs.

2) Jones Act Negligence (Fault-Based Damages)

The Jones Act allows you to recover full damages if your employer’s negligence played any part—however slight—in causing your injury. Examples include:

• Unsafe work pace, inadequate manning, or lack of rest
• Failure to de-ice decks, provide anti-slip footwear, or proper lighting
• Poor training, inadequate supervision, or missing PPE
• Unsecured loads, dangerous transfer procedures, or failure to enforce lock-out/tag-out
• Defective or poorly maintained winches, blocks, guards, or e-stops

Recoverable damages may include lost wages and fringe benefits, loss of future earning capacity, medical expenses, pain and suffering, and other provable losses. Comparative fault may reduce—but does not eliminate—your recovery if the company proves you were partly at fault.

3) Unseaworthiness (Vessel Condition Liability)

Separately from negligence, a vessel owner is liable if the vessel, its equipment, or crew is unseaworthy—not reasonably fit for its intended use. Unseaworthiness can be:

• Worn or defective lines, blocks, winches, or guards
• Chronic understaffing or an incompetent/insufficiently trained crew
• Persistent ice on work surfaces, chronic lighting failures, or broken non-skid
• Dangerous factory layouts that create inevitable pinch points

You may bring both Jones Act and unseaworthiness claims arising from the same incident.

4) Additional Remedies

• Wages to the end of the voyage: Seamen are generally entitled to earned wages through voyage end or contract period.
• Wrongful death: Families may have claims under federal maritime statutes if a loved one is lost at sea.
• Third-party claims: If a non-employer contractor or equipment manufacturer caused or contributed to the harm (e.g., defective machine guards or negligent tender operations), you may pursue additional recovery.

Deadline alert: Most maritime injury claims have a three-year statute of limitations. Some notice requirements are shorter. Do not wait.

What to Do Immediately After a Bering Sea Injury

1. Report the incident in writing as soon as safely possible. Keep your own copy or photo of any report.
2. Get medical care and insist on your right to choose your doctor. Don’t let “return-to-work” pressure override medical judgment.
3. Document evidence: Photos of the scene (ice, lighting, broken guards), footwear and PPE, the equipment involved, and your injuries.
4. Identify witnesses: Names, roles, contact info; note what each person saw or did.
5. Preserve gear: Request that the company preserve defective parts, logs, CCTV, E-stop records, and maintenance histories.
6. Avoid recorded statements until you’ve spoken with a maritime attorney. Company adjusters are trained to minimize claims.
7. Track expenses: Save receipts for travel to appointments, prescriptions, and out-of-pocket medical costs.
8. Don’t sign releases or “global settlements” before you understand the full extent of your injuries and legal rights.

Safety Duties Your Employer and Vessel Owe You

• Provide a reasonably safe place to work with adequate crew and supervision
• Maintain seaworthy equipment and safe, non-skid walking surfaces
• De-ice decks, ladders, and platforms and provide proper lighting
• Supply and enforce PPE (anti-slip boots, floatation where appropriate, cut-resistant gloves in factory areas)
• Implement and enforce LOTO, machine guarding, and e-stop testing
• Provide fit-for-purpose ladders, safe tender/cradle/platform procedures, and stop-work authority in rough seas
• Ensure reasonable work/rest cycles to reduce fatigue-related errors

Failure in any of these areas can support negligence and unseaworthiness claims.

Alaska, Washington, and Venue Considerations

Many Bering Sea fleets operate from Dutch Harbor/Unalaska, Akutan, St. Paul, and Seattle. You don’t have to file where the incident occurred. Maritime claims may be brought in state or federal court, often where the vessel owner does business or where the seaman resides. Strategic venue selection can affect jury pools, procedure, and case value. An experienced maritime lawyer can advise the best forum for your case.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I Get to Pick My Own Doctor?

Yes. Under maintenance and cure, you control your medical care. The company must pay for reasonable treatment until MMI.

The Company Stopped Paying Maintenance—What Now?

They must pay reasonable daily maintenance and all cure related to your injury. Unreasonable non-payment can trigger penalties and fees. Speak to counsel immediately.

I Slipped on Ice—Am I at Fault?

Icy decks are a known hazard that require de-icing, non-skid, and safe procedures. Even if you think you made a mistake, the Jones Act has a low causation threshold. Don’t self-blame—document the conditions.

I Was Injured During a Tender Transfer in Rough Weather.

Transfers must be reasonably safe given sea state, lighting, and ice. Poor timing, inadequate manning, or a slick platform can support negligence and unseaworthiness claims—and potentially third-party liability.

How Long Do I Have to File?

Generally three years, but evidence goes stale fast. Report, get treatment, and consult counsel as soon as possible.

How an Experienced Maritime Attorney Helps

• Secures maintenance and cure promptly and fights unlawful cut-offs
• Preserves evidence (logs, CCTV, VDR data, maintenance, e-stop tests) before it disappears
• Coordinates with the U.S. Coast Guard and company investigations while protecting your rights
• Retains experts in vessel operations, human factors, machine guarding, and economics to prove liability and damages
• Values your case based on future medical needs, work restrictions, and lifetime earning capacity—not just short-term wages

Bottom Line

A-season demands speed and endurance, but safety is never optional. If you were hurt in the Bering Sea—on deck, in the factory, or during a transfer—you’re entitled to medical care and, where fault or unseaworthiness played any role, full compensation for your losses. Report, get treatment, preserve evidence, and talk to a maritime injury lawyer who understands Alaska fisheries, factory trawlers, and the realities of A-season work.

If you have questions about your injury on a commercial fishing vessel, contact our experienced maritime lawyers for a free case evaluation. We are here to help.