PORTLAND – Commercial fishermen would receive a tax credit to buy and maintain life rafts, survival suits and other safety equipment under a bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins on Wednesday.

The Maine Republican’s proposal follows a string of deaths among the state’s fishermen. The last was on Friday, when a man was caught in a winch on a stern trawler

50 miles southeast of Cape Elizabeth.

“All along the coast of Maine, fishing communities continue to mourn nine fishermen lost last year,” Collins said. “At the same time, 13 fishermen were saved because they were able to get the survival suit on in time and get into the raft, or because they were literally clinging to the EPIRB [emergency beacon].”

The Coast Guard’s northeast district saw the most deaths in 2000 since new rules first requiring safety equipment went into effect in 1993.

Nationally, 536 fishermen have died at sea since 1994, according to federal statistics.

The bill would give a tax credit equal to 75 percent of the cost of buying or maintaining the safety equipment that is required aboard fishing vessels.

Collins introduced a similar bill last year, but it did not pass. The new version would extend the tax break to the costs of servicing, as well as purchasing, the equipment.

Vessels already carry survival gear, but Collins’ bill could improve safety by giving fishermen more of an incentive to take care of the equipment, said Arn Heggers, the fishing-vessel safety examiner for the U.S. Coast Guard in Maine.

“This past year we’ve had a lot of accidents, and in some cases the people were saved by the equipment,” Heggers said. But in other cases, fishermen died when required equipment wasn’t functioning properly or when survival suits didn’t fit, he said.

The tax savings could help pay for better or additional equipment and safety training, said Hank Soule, the manager of three Portland-based fishing vessels.