Outcome Monitoring Protocol in Support of the 2021 Code of Practice for the Safety of Small Fishing Vessels

Project Team

Project Lead: Dr Matteo Scarponi , Senior Consulting Engineer within the Wolfson Unit MTIA .

Policy and research support: Dr Wassim Dbouk , Marine and Maritime Policy Research fellow at the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute (SMMI); and Miss Alice Booth , Policy Associate at Public Policy|Southampton (PPS).

Relevant SDGs

The drive to improve the safety of small fishing vessels and consequently the safety and wellbeing of fishermen is in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, specifically Goal 8 for ‘decent work and economic growth’. This goal aims to ‘promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all’ and as such requires the promotion of safe working environments for all workers. In order to achieve this goal, the safety of small fishing vessels must be addressed to ensure the protection of all fishermen.

Project Overview

Having a fatality rate approximately 100 times higher than that of the UK general workforce, commercial fishing remains the most dangerous peacetime occupation in the UK. Ten commercial fishermen have tragically lost their lives in accidents at sea in 2021. This is the highest number in a decade and about double the annual average over the past five years (source: Marine Accident Investigation Branch - MAIB).

On 6th September 2021 the new Code of Practice (CoP) for the Safety of Small Fishing Vessels (Merchant Shipping Notice 1871 Amendment 2) came into force. Its aim is to improve the safety of fishing vessels in foreseeable operating conditions, to implement MAIB recommendations and to improve the chances of the crew surviving an incident.

This new UK policy regulates newly built and newly registered fishing vessels. Crucially, it also regulates approximately 4800 existing fishing vessels, approximately 90% of the UK fishing fleet. Up to September 2021 the UK under 15 metre fleet was largely unregulated with respect to stability and other safety aspects. The new CoP has a two-year transition period that will end on 5th September 2023, when the whole fleet will have to demonstrate compliance.

The new CoP regulates areas such as construction, machinery, crew protection and stability. Poor vessel stability often determines a sudden capsize and results in fatalities, therefore intact stability is a highly regulated part of the CoP. It is expected, however, that most existing fishing vessels will fail to comply with the new stability rules as they were not designed against these in the first place.

This project aims to produce a protocol that will enable monitoring the outcomes and the overall effectiveness of the new CoP throughout its transition period 09/2021 – 09/2023, with the SMMI /PPS providing specialist policy research expertise. To this end, it was proposed and agreed to produce a list of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that will be obtained and populated in discussion with the MCA’s Fishing Safety team.

Initial findings and recommendations

Over the first few months of its existence, the new CoP has been met with mixed reactions by the UK small scale fishing industry. As expected, the new measures concerning stability, freeboard/positive clear height at side and water freeing arrangements are being resisted by many owners and skippers of previously unregulated vessels.
Simultaneously, there is an emerging need to ensure consistency in the decisions made by MCA surveyors with respect to alternative arrangements for/equivalent measures to achieve compliance.

An ongoing need to monitor the implementation of the CoP, measure its outcomes and validate its predicted impact has also been identified.

It is recommended that safety training to fishermen and MCA surveyors include specific information and practical examples on the Wolfson Stability Notice and Freeboard Guidance Mark for decked and open fishing vessels. The Stability Notice and Freeboard Mark combined remain the only method available to the fishermen to assess the level of safety of their own vessels with respect to capsize whilst fishing and in relation to the prevailing seastate.

In this respect, new evidence in support of the Wolfson Stability Method and its usefulness in enhancing fishing vessel safety is available in a recent report funded by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation. The new data, obtained from a review of 17 vessel capsize reports compiled by 10 marine accident investigation bodies worldwide, indicate that all these vessels capsized in a combination of loading condition and seastate deemed ‘unsafe’ by the Wolfson Method.  A copy of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation report may be downloaded from this link .

Outputs

To Follow

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