Publication Abstract

Safe practices for sampling commercial trawl catches at sea

G.P. Course, A.J.R. Cotter, R.O. Jolliffe, B.J. Kay and R.S. Rolfe

The fishing industry has long been recognised as an extremely hazardous occupation. in 1996 in the UK alone, 20 fishers were killed and 26 vessels were lost. However the need to collect accurate total catch data, rather than only landings data, has led to more and more fisheries research being conducted aboard commercial fishing vessels. If these vessels are chartered high standards of safety can be demanded, but when the research is being conducted on an opportunistic, non-charter basis (free access) it becomes impossible to insist on high safety standards. The introduction of new UK health and safety law require the employer to ensure that all possible risks to staff are minimised, as far as is reasonably practicable. Therefore when the current English North Sea discard study commenced in 1996 the safety equipment, guidelines, training and emergency response plans used during previous studies were reviewed to determine if these were adequate for continued use. This resulted in new safety training and procedures being developed to comply with the UK legislation and to protect research staff that were required to sample catches aboard non-chartered fishing vessels. These are detailed along with a list of personal safety equipment issued to the research staff and an allocation of responsibilities of the staff involved in the project. The fishing industry has long been recognised as an extremely hazardous occupation. in 1996 in the UK alone, 20 fishers were killed and 26 vessels were lost. However the need to collect accurate total catch data, rather than only landings data, has led to more and more fisheries research being conducted aboard commercial fishing vessels. If these vessels are chartered high standards of safety can be demanded, but when the research is being conducted on an opportunistic, non-charter basis (free access) it becomes impossible to insist on high safety standards. The introduction of new UK health and safety law require the employer to ensure that all possible risks to staff are minimised, as far as is reasonably practicable. Therefore when the current English North Sea discard study commenced in 1996 the safety equipment, guidelines, training and emergency response plans used during previous studies were reviewed to determine if these were adequate for continued use. This resulted in new safety training and procedures being developed to comply with the UK legislation and to protect research staff that were required to sample catches aboard non-chartered fishing vessels. These are detailed along with a list of personal safety equipment issued to the research staff and an allocation of responsibilities of the staff involved in the project.

Reference:

G.P. Course, A.J.R. Cotter, R.O. Jolliffe, B.J. Kay and R.S. Rolfe, 1999. Safe practices for sampling commercial trawl catches at sea. Fisheries Research, 41(1): 99-104