Serving Alaska for Over 25 Years
Medical Requirements
Medical Criteria for Seamen and Deckhands
Description of Job
These individuals go out on 27 day voyages in rough waters, with the vessel making random and severe motions. They are sedentary for the first nine days, then perform extremely strenuous labor for nine days, with little sleep, and are then sedentary again for nine days.
The strenuous work consists of lifting and stacking heavy cases of frozen seafood in freezer holds.
Lifting Parameters
Must be able to lift 100 lb. to shoulder height, and the same weight overhead by partially resting it on another object. The individual must be able to perform this continually on the following schedule: six hours work followed by a one hour break, with intervening 15 minute breaks, for a total of 24 hours. After six hours rest the individual must be able to perform the same labor for 18 hours.
Exposure Parameters
Must be able to stand, suitably clothed, face-to arctic conditions for long periods of time.
Respiratory Parameters
Must be able to breath in a freezer hold with an air temperature of 10 deg. F. "Box dust" (fine dust from cardboard boxes) is usually present in small amounts in the air.
Ambulatory Parameters
The individual must be to stay on his/her feet for 24 hours, with minor rest breaks. Long distance walking is not encountered of course, but due to the rough seas encountered, the individual must be able to move about a cluttered engine room without an unusual chance of stumbling. The individual must be relatively insensitive to vertigo.
Hearing
Candidate must undergo a hearing test.
Survival Testing
The candidate must be capable of donning a USCG- approved survival suit in reasonable time, jumping off a vessel or structure at a height of twelve feet off the water, and swimming in the survival suit 100 feet to a fixed ladder. The length of swim time is not important. The candidate must be able to climb the ladder twelve feet back up to the jumping point. The candidate will be tested for this by CTI.
Medical Criteria for Seamen and Deckhands
Description of Job
The candidate would cook for a crew of seven aboard a 180 ft. long boat. The cook has no help with his/her job, and prepares all meals alone. Likewise cleaning of galley spaces and dishwashing. The cook usually works about 10 hours a day, with frequent long breaks. Except for the often wild and random motions of the boat while at sea, the position is much the same as any other cook’s job.
Cooks are not usually asked to work on deck, i.e., hauling on heavy ropes, or performing strenuous manual labor.
The strenuous work consists of lifting and stacking heavy cases of frozen seafood in freezer holds.
Lifting Parameters
Must be able to lift 50 lb. to waist height, and conduct this up an eight foot flight of stairs, if only by dragging it up. Must be able to do this twenty times in six hours, once a week.
Respiratory Parameters
Must be able to work over a smoky grill. Must be free from tuberculosis or other severe communicable respiratory diseases.
Ambulatory Parameters
The job doesn’t require walking for long distances. However, the candidate must be sure-footed, due to the severe rolling and pitching motions of the vessel while underway, and the dangerous proximity to stoves, etc..
Special Considerations
Candidate must be tested for foodborne forms of hepatitis.
Hearing
Candidate must undergo a hearing test.
Survival Testing
The candidate must be capable of donning a USCG- approved survival suit in reasonable time, jumping off a vessel or structure at a height of twelve feet off the water, and swimming in the survival suit 100 feet to a fixed ladder. The length of swim time is not important. The candidate must be able to climb the ladder twelve feet back up to the jumping point. The candidate will be tested for this by CTI.