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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 36 Number 11
July 2009
Fish Safe
CG report bottom line: Safety is up to us
This is the last in a three-part series of articles on a report released in October 2008 by the Coast Guard Office of Investigations and Analysis entitled “Analysis of Fishing Vessel Casualties: A Review of Lost Fishing Vessels and Crew Fatalities, 1992-2007.”
Part 1 (CFN January 2009) covered findings related to the Northeast and cold water. Part 2 (CFN May 2009) discussed the relationship between vessel loss and fatalities. Part 3 will discuss the causes of the vessel losses.
The report found that the predominant activity prior to the loss of documented fishing vessels was not heading out to fish, fishing, or heading in, but steaming from one fishing location to another. Of the 1,903 vessel losses, 639 of them happened while transiting.
And if we add up the losses listed in nonfishing, precasualty activity categories – transiting, heading in, heading out, mooring, and anchoring, plus towing activities (from the “other” category) – 70% of the casualties occurred during nonfishing activity.
Why is this? Is more time spent in nonfishing activities than in fishing activities? Is transiting more dangerous than fishing itself?
Perhaps during fishing activities there are more hands on deck and so more crew looking out for hazards. Perhaps crewmembers know their fishing roles better than their responsibilities during nonfishing activities. Or perhaps poor loading of the catch becomes a problem during transiting.
Human factors may play a role. Fatigue, for example, may result in failure to keep a proper look out, close watertight doors or open deck scuppers, or detect subtle changes in weather, sounds, smells, engine performance, and/or boat handling.
Other human factors such as inadequate training or boat handling skills and insufficient food/nutrition also may increase the risk of casualty.
Vessel loss
The top four causes associated with the 1,903 vessels lost were: flooding, 685; fire, 383; grounding, 310; and capsize, 182. Altogether, these accounted for 82% of all losses.
However, Ted Harrington, fishing vessel safety coordinator with the Coast Guard First District, often stresses that casualties typically are the result of a domino effect of small incidents and decisions that slowly accumulate until reaching a tipping point into crisis.
So, drilling down to another level of possible causes for vessel loss, we see that flooding actually can be caused by: loss of stability due to improper loading and/or icing; loss of vessel integrity due to skipped maintenance; and/or human error affecting vessel handling.
Fire can be caused by improper cleaning of the engine room and/or operator failure to inspect the engine, hoses, and electrical connections. Groundings can be caused by instrument or equipment failures and/or operator inattention. Capsize can be triggered by a combination of any and all of the above.
Additionally, most of the vessels lost were between 11 and 30 years old and their stability characteristics may have been altered over the years through repairs, structural modifications, and/or the installation of different propellers, drive shafts, and heavier or more powerful engines.
Vessel integrity may have been compromised by age. Or the boats may have been passed down to less skilled operators.
So, the bottom line conclusion we can reach from a careful reading of this report is that, in many cases, fishermen do not have to be victims of the sea. Owners and operators can take steps to dramatically improve the safety of their vessels and protect the lives of their crews and themselves.
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