The water can be a dangerous place, but you don't have to tell that to Morgan Parker or Angela Sanfilippo.

Late Thursday morning, just as the sun moved toward its highest point and Gloucester Harbor filled with a tableau of wind and motor craft, Parker and Sanfilippo sat on the back patio of the U.S. Coast Guard station on Harbor Loop.

In front of the two women, the daylong water-safety course organized by the Fishing Partnership Support Services group swirled, as more than 40 commercial fishermen and others who ply their trade on the open waters of the Atlantic moved between six separate modules of water-safety instruction.

Over to the side, instructors talked about damage control. Near the water, the talk was of survival suits, and a cluster near the helipad learned the proper methods of firefighting and emergency communications.

Other clusters dealt with deploying life rafts and emergency flares, as well as the really serious topics of first aid and man-overboard situations.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times>>