Safety net

The RNLI launched 478 lifeboats to commercial fishing vessels in 2015 alone. And that’s not the only way that they look after fishermen’s safety, as Laura Rainbow explains.

Commercial fishing in the cold, rough seas around the UK and Republic of Ireland is a hazardous profession. Pushing their boats ever further out in search of a catch, the men and women who supply us with freshly caught seafood risk accident and injury every time they do their jobs. For many commercial fishermen, tragedies at sea seem to go with the job – but do they have to?

RNLI analysis shows time and time again that many of the common causes of death and injury – including fires, equipment failure, man overboards, leaks and swamping – need not have occurred.

Sheryll Murray is MP for South East Cornwall, and knows all too well that changes – some of them pretty simple – are needed to make the industry safer. In March 2011, her husband Neil didn’t come home from his fishing trip. His body was eventually discovered onboard his boat Our Boy Andrew, where he had been crushed to death by machinery

“Safety is a massive issue in this industry and it’s getting a little better. But with complacency comes an increased rate of accidents, so we need to keep the reminders coming. You may do something onboard your boat 100 times with no problems, but if you’re not paying attention, that 101st time could be a completely different outcome.”

This year, reducing deck machinery incidents is an all-important part of the RNLI’s target – to halve the number of coastal deaths by 2024. It’s one of several ways that the organization is working with commercial fishing crews to make changes.

Frankie Horne is the RNLI’s fishing safety manager, and a volunteer crew member at Peel Lifeboat Station. He helped deliver our new deck machinery safety campaign to the Fisheries All-Party Parliamentary Group in January. A day later he was reminded why the campaign is so vital.

“What happened really shows why we’re running this safety initiative,” says Frankie. “We launched the campaign on Monday, and on Wednesday I was at the House of Commons presenting the campaign to politicians, who were so impressed and supportive. Less than 24 hours later, I was at a fishing port giving first aid to a fisherman who had suffered a deck machinery injury. It is an incredible coincidence – but it shows how important our campaign is, trying to reduce incidents just like this one.”

The current campaign on deck machinery is one of a number aimed at making life safer for fishermen. Here’s an overview, plus two more current safety campaigns:

1. Deck machinery
Problem: The kit onboard a fishing vessel is expensive, and many crews “make do”, mending or replacing their broken machinery with kit that’s not always in line with modern safety standards. On top of that, crew training isn’t always as comprehensive as it could be. In fact, 88 people have been injured or killed in deck machinery incidents on fishing vessels in UK waters in the past 5 years.

Solution: The RNLI is working together with other organisations, including Seafish in the UK, to make it easier for commercial fishing crews to apply for new EU funding that could help them buy safer equipment. As part of a safety campaign, the RNLI has also produced a 6-minute safety video to get important information across to them. It features advice from a range of fishing safety experts and an interview with Jamie Griffin from the Isle of Man (pictured below): a former fisherman who severed his arm, punctured a lung and broke eight ribs in a horrific deck machinery accident in 2013.

2. Personal flotation devices (PFDs)
Problem: A shocking 76% of fishermen who died between 2010 and 2013 weren’t wearing a lifejacket or buoyancy aid – it’s just not common practice on a lot of boats. In many cases, wearing a PFD could have saved the victim’s life.

Solution: The RNLI’s Community Safety team has started training fishermen in how to use the free personal flotation devices (PFDs) being given out by Seafish’s Sea You Home Safe campaign – a collaboration between major industry bodies. The shared aim is to equip the more than 12,500 fishermen in the UK with a PFD and training that covers how and why they should wear the devices, and how to maintain them.

3. Boat stability
Problem: Of the 49 commercial fishermen who died at work between 2009 to 2012, 34% were killed when their vessel capsized. These disastrous events are often caused by leaking or swamping. By promoting greater awareness of these hazards, and how to avoid them, more fishing crews will make it home this year and in the future.

Solution: The RNLI has produced a series of five short films providing practical, easy-to-follow advice on how to make fishing boats more stable. They cover such topics as how to haul in a catch without unbalancing a boat, and how to check that everything onboard is watertight. The campaign hit the media in Winter 2015, and the videos have already been watched thousands of times.

This article featured in the spring issue of Lifeboat, the RNLI magazine. The RNLI is the charity that saves lives at sea. It provides on call, a 24-hour lifeboat search and rescue service around the UK and Ireland, and a seasonal lifeguard service. It is independent of the Coastguard and government and 92% of its income comes from donations: to find out more or to donate, visit rnli.org. The pictures in the post were taken by Nigel Millard, a professional photographer and volunteer lifeboat crew member who has taking pictures of the RNLI for a decade.