Sep 19, 2025

NL Fish Harvesting Safety Association Pushing to Make PLBs Accessible to All Harvesters

The Newfoundland and Labrador Fish Harvesting Safety Association says Personal Locator Beacons save lives.

Members of the association gathered outside the Canadian Coast Guard in St. John’s on Wednesday to bring attention to continued marine safety concerns on the coast of Labrador four years after the sinking of the Island Lady.

The vessel, and the two men on board, Marc Russell and Joey Jenkins, have never been found.

PLBs save lives says safety association

A Personal Locator Beacon will send a signal on a person’s or vessel’s location when it is activated.

Association Executive Director Craig Parsons estimates more than 25-hundred PLBs have been handed out since the tragedy, but they want them accessible to all fish harvesters.

He says a PLB made the difference in helping to save Terry Billard off Burgeo, and he strongly believes the ‘Lucky 7’ might have been found sooner had officials received a signal.

“I said to Eugene Carter (of the Elite Navigator crew) a number of times, I said if you had gotten your EPRIB you would have been home for breakfast, right? Instead of 52 hours later.”