Groton — Fresh out of the water off UConn's Avery Point campus, Robert Morsch twisted and shimmied out of his survival suit, a task only slightly easier than getting into the watertight and buoyant outfit in the first place.

"Did you wet yourself?" a nearby fisherman joked.

"Yeah, I got a little nervous," Mystic Way fishing vessel owner Morsch retorted with a laugh, stealing a glance at his doused sweatpants.

His survival suit, it turned out, had sprouted a hole somewhere, despite recently passing a visual inspection.

It's something many commercial fishermen learn during training sessions conducted by Fishing Partnership Support Services, according to Ed Dennehy, director of safety training for the Massachusetts-based nonprofit.

Dennehy, a 1970 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and a retired Coast Guard captain, said many fishermen never try on their suits before taking to the water, even though in emergency situations — especially boat fires — they may have only a minute or less to get into the life-saving garb.

Practicing with the suits was just one aspect of Wednesday's multifaceted training — sponsored by UConn's Connecticut Sea Grant College Program — which Fishing Partnership officials said they believe is the first such training in the state in at least 10 years.

Split into four groups, the almost 50 local fishermen, captains and crew members alike, rotated through stations where they learned things such as how to set off flares from a cramped life raft and the best ways to fight an onboard fire.

"When you're out there, you're alone," Dennehy said. "Whatever is happening is something you have to be able to take care of yourself — you can't rely on the fire department or Coast Guard."

For commercial fishers, who are part of an industry whose fatality rate is almost 40 times the national average, the training can mean the difference between life and death.

But, in part because the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's jurisdiction stops at the shoreline, many fishermen don't have access to such training, according to Fishing Partnership Support Services President J.J. Bartlett.

Bartlett said a training program was authorized at the federal level in 2010, but never funded.

His group, he said, advocates every year for funding for the program with the hope that, one day, trainings in states such as Connecticut will be more commonplace.

Wednesday, as fishermen tugged and pulled at their suits, sometimes seeking help from other fishermen in the endeavor, Dennehy offered a not-so-gentle reminder.

Sometimes, he said, responders find fishermen in the water, their suits still holding them up, dead of hypothermia because they failed to properly zip up.

One-hundred feet away, Matt Milam, who'd just labored with a few others to stop leaks using T-shirts and wooden wedges, said he's aware of the risks of his industry but won't let it keep him from the water.

"You get more of a rush than anything out there," he said, describing the thrill of being surrounded by thousands of migrating dolphins and seeing other sights many never will.

Still, Milam — who works on a boat that takes 30-hour trips to collect things such as skate, fluke, flounder, dogfish and scallops — was happy to participate in the training session.

"They talk about a lot of stuff that your eyes aren't necessarily open to," Milam said. "Sometimes you're just geared up to go fish. It's nice to take a moment and go through" the safety tips.

Morsch, who said he attended a similar training in Montauk, N.Y., some years ago, said the training allows him and his crew to get hands-on experience without having to deploy their own life raft, which can cost about $1,000 to repack.

It's important to learn about the lifespan of flares and to get practice spraying a fire extinguisher, too, he said, noting that when he and his crew depart for the sea to drag fishing nets, they can be gone anywhere from four to seven days.

"It's a good course," he said.

l.boyle@theday.com