UK Maritime Safety Week
This year’s Maritime Safety Week commenced on 4 July. Over the course of the week, a series of blogs reiterating safety messages to the industry were published by the MAIB. A few of the highlights are published below.
Andrew Moll OBE
Opening Maritime Safety Week, Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents, Andrew Moll OBE, said: “Today marks the start of Maritime Safety Week 2022, an important moment when the marine industry comes together to focus on how we can collectively continue to improve safety across the sector. As the MAIB has done in previous years, this week we plan to highlight a number of key areas of ongoing concern and reiterate the safety messages that the industry must note.
“Today I am going to concentrate on fishing vessel safety, which continues to require my close attention. In 2021, ten commercial fishermen lost their lives and nine out of the 22 investigations commenced by MAIB last year involved commercial fishing vessels. However, we will not lose focus on improving safety and will continue to strive to understand the causes of accidents on board fishing vessels so lessons can be learned, and more tragedies can be averted in this most dangerous of professions.
For more information go to the Code of Safe Working Practices for Merchant Seafarers (COSWP) guidance at:
https://bit.ly/3r4nGpm
“Stability on board fishing vessels is a significant ongoing safety issue. The recent reports looking into the tragic accidents on board the potting vessels Nicola Faith and Joanna C have highlighted how modifications can compromise a vessel’s stability. However, stability can also be compromised during fishing operations by, for example, overloading, which was the case in the accident involving Nicola Faith. The vessel had undergone several unapproved modifications, but our investigation found that the main trigger for the capsize was severe overloading by a combination of catch and fishing gear. The consequence in this accident was that all three crew members lost their lives.
“At the start of Maritime Safety Week, I would encourage all skippers and crews to take a long hard look at their vessel’s stability and ask themselves some potentially challenging questions. How much have modifications eroded our vessel’s stability since it was built? Do we have a safe procedure for when the fishing gear becomes snagged or picks up a heavy load?
Are we using the fish hold to best effect to minimise the weight on deck? I would urge crews to take a look at the Nicola Faith and Joanna C reports and heed the lessons the investigations identified.”
One small step for maritime safety – the issue of unsafe pilot ladders The MAIB’s Annual Report published in June highlighted the issue of unsafe pilot ladders, a concern that has been regularly voiced by the industry. In 2021, the branch received almost 200 reports about substandard pilot ladders. Of those, 87% of the ladders were rigged incorrectly and the remainder were observed by the marine pilot as being materially defective – see image. Fortunately, serious accidents have been rare, but the potential for injury and even loss of life clearly exists.
Reflections and highlights from
The Report • September 2022 • Issue 101 | 21
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