CONTAINMENT SPECIAL
Chafing and snagging
et chafing and snagging is an im- portant cause of escape incidents. A number of contributory factors were identified in the SARF report:
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• A failure of prevention measures (eg protection on a shackle).
• Inadequate design (eg insufficient sepa- ration between a net and a mooring line). • Poor equipment (eg cage with protrud- ing bolts, weights with rough edges or equipment with sharp or abrasive edges). • Poor maintenance (eg marine growth on a flotation tube which can chafe nets). • Poor inspection and monitoring, thereby failing to identify issues which could be addressed by maintenance or replace- ment before they become problematic. • Inappropriate facilities for operating a site (eg inadequate crane or winch facili- ties for the size of cage).
• Lack of knowledge about how to operate a specific net and cage system (including the weighting system). • Poor management, supervision and training of staff.
Although management, supervision and training are mentioned as a separate point in the above list, these are also factors in many of the preceding points. These contributory factors suggest that some staff involved in escape incidents may either have insufficient awareness of the equipment they are using or that their knowledge is inadequately applied, although this was not researched in the study. This may also suggest a need for enhanced supervision and management in some cases. Several difficulties with regard to training, supervision and management particular to the aquaculture industry were identified during consultations with fish farmers. These are listed below:
• The range of different equipment that may be in use at installations within the same company.
• Different operating systems between sites require different knowledge and skills to operate. • Keeping staff up-to-date on new equip- ment and operating systems. • The lack of opportunity to train on un- stocked cages or simulators prior to work- ing on stocked sites. • Reluctance to train staff in their induc- tion period in case they leave. • Difficulties in motivating relatively low paid staff undertaking largely routine work in inclement weather conditions. • The lack of structured training pro- grammes in many companies, particularly in regard to operational issues.
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• The large number of sites operated by many companies requires a higher pro- portion of supervisory staff than may be the case in many other industries. • The remote nature of many sites means that communication and training is often difficult.
A number of the larger companies have been standardising their equipment across their Scottish sites to help address some of the above points. In particular this has included standardisation of weighting systems and net types. The study recommends that companies
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SARF 054
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