New figures from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) show that more deaths have been recorded in UK waters than in Alaskan waters where reality TV show The Deadliest Catch is filmed.
In the first six months of this year, nine fishermen’s lives have been lost at sea in six different incidents. UK authority Seafish has said that this is a worryingly high figure for this stage in the year and there is concern this number could rise.
The UK has seen an increase of 29% on 2015 full year figures (seven fishermen lost their lives), while the Alaskan fishing fleet has reported that, for the first time, no one died while commercial fishing in a vessel-related incident in the past year. Previously, between 1980 and 1988, an average of 31 fishermen died in Alaska each year.
Seafish is also warning that the summer months are when commercial fishermen are more likely to have a non-fatal accident which leads to major injury when working at sea. A common misperception is that these accidents are more likely to happen during bad weather during the winter months.
In light of this, Seafish is calling on the fishing industry to be vigilant all year round when it comes to the health and safety of crew on board commercial fishing vessels.
In a bid to reduce the number of fatal and debilitating accidents, Seafish is calling for all owners, skippers and crew to review their working practices and take steps to remove or reduce risks and adopt safer working practices. Crew training records can be checked and verified with Seafish, but training should be regularly refreshed. Seafish also wants more fishermen to wear a Personal Flotation Device (PFD) when working at sea. These are still available for free from Seafish (for fishermen in England, Wales and NI) and the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (for fishermen in Scotland).
Simon Potten, Head of Safety and Training at Seafish explains: “The number of fatal accidents and serious injuries happening in our fishing industry is unacceptable. I know many fishermen watch the Deadliest Catch, which shows some pretty scary fishing in Alaska, but last year the Alaskan commercial fishing industry had zero deaths. The ‘Deadliest Catch’ is right here in the UK with nine deaths to date this year. It’s a horrific record.”
