Federal money will put naloxone and first aid training on remote Alaska fishing boats

Public health nurse Denise Damewood's eldest son died of an opioid overdose at sea. In 2022 she started Project Gabe, which mails emergency kits to fishing vessels and shoreside businesses: four doses of naloxone nasal spray, fentanyl test strips and instructions on using them. Boats can request one or pick it up in Sitka.

Federal money will now put that work, and first aid training, into remote fishing communities for the next three years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded $1,279,333 to the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association in Sitka, split between $548,086 for first aid and opioid overdose response training in the commercial fishing industry and $731,247 for a broader safety program built around training, wearable flotation device promotion and injury prevention. Both run from September through August 2029.

Project Gabe and AMSEA merged on Jan. 1, with Damewood staying on as a nurse consultant to AMSEA and to the state health department.

Both organizations treat the naloxone kits as worker safety equipment, on the same footing as a life jacket. Commercial fishing is among the deadliest work in the country, and AMSEA executive director Leanne Cyr has pointed to research finding post-traumatic stress disorder among commercial fishermen at roughly three times the national rate for men.

AMSEA separately received $2,850,104 from the U.S. Department of Education in fiscal 2025 for commercial fishing safety training.