INVESTIGATION

Part 2 – Fishing Vessels
I was honoured
to be asked by the
MAIB to write the
introduction for
the fishing vessels
section of this
Safety Digest.
I have spent the
last 22 years at
Seafish working on
fishermen’s training
and fishing safety.
My desk is covered in MAIB publications -
accident investigation reports, safety digests,
annual reports, research reports - they are
all essential reading in helping me plan and
prioritise Seafish’s contribution to improving
fishing safety.
There has never been a year in which no
fishermen have died. Fishing safety has
improved, but the rate of improvement is too
slow. I do not accept that loss of life and serious
injuries are inevitable consequences of the
dangers of working as a commercial fisherman.
Safety and the protection of our fishermen are
paramount and must be put above profit. After
all, there is little point making a living if you are
not alive to enjoy it.
The single biggest cause of death to fishermen in
the UK continues to be when they unexpectedly
end up in the sea. A lot of time, money and effort
have been put into making Personal Flotation
Devices (PFDs) available to fishermen, but they
are not being worn and fishermen continue to
die unnecessarily. It’s time for skippers to show
stronger leadership and lay down the law to their
crew on basic safe working practices and personal
protective equipment.
Anyone who knows me would be disappointed
if I didn’t say something about training. Training
is vital to gain the knowledge and skills needed
to do the job, and do it safely, but unless that
learning is put into practice onboard the vessel,
the full benefit is not realised. “Practice” is the
key word. Onboard drills are a legal requirement,
but not enough skippers do them. If you’ve got
safety equipment onboard, make sure the crew
knows where it is and how to use it, quickly and
efficiently. Practice makes perfect. It could be
your life that depends on it.
I encourage you to read through the following
case studies, considering whether the same thing
could happen on your vessel. Would you and
your crew know what to do if it did? But most
importantly ask yourself, “How do I prevent it
happening on my vessel?”
Here at Seafish, our objective is to help the
fishing industry eliminate preventable deaths,
an objective we share with all our partners in
the Fishing Industry Safety Group (including
industry Federations and Associations, the
Maritime & Coastguard Agency, the MAIB, the
RNLI’s Fishing Safety Team and the Fishermen’s
Mission).
So, in terms of safety, there is a fantastic network
of support available to fishermen, whether
it is guidance on risk assessment and safety
management via the Federations, port safety
seminars via the RNLI or training via Seafish.
However, responsibility for safety ultimately lies
with skippers and they need to implement and
enforce stricter safety regimes on their vessels.
Humans make mistakes. That’s how we learn.
MAIB publications provide fishermen with a
unique opportunity to learn from the mistakes of
others. Don’t waste it. Read the case studies, then
review and re-assess the working practices on
your vessel and make sure they are as safe as they
can possibly be.
Safe fishing.
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MAIB Safety Digest 1/2017