The National Observer Program continues to enhance the safety of observers by sponsoring Marine Safety Instructor Training Workshops for observer trainers. The objectives of these workshops are to bring together observer trainers from all NMFS observer programs to facilitate distribution and sharing of safety training resources as well as the most current marine safety techniques and equipment, and to improve teaching methods. Another objective of these workshops is to provide a forum where national training standards for safety can be developed.

Man overboard drills are part of the practical training skills taught in the safety training workshops. Here Jerry Dzugan is helped aboard by Mike Tork, an observer trainer in the NOAA Fisheries Northeast Observer Program.The first Safety Trainers Workshop was held in March 2001, and was taught by Jerry Dzugan and Paula Cullenberg of the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association, and by Kit Van Meter of KVM & Associates of Massachusetts.

A detailed description of this course is available. Following the success of this workshop, additional workshops sponsored by the National Observer Program have been held: October 2002 for new observer trainers and those who were unable to attend the first course, and September 2003 as a refresher course for the March 2001 course participants. A January 2004 workshop is planned to formalize a national safety training curriculum.