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 have started training fishermen on 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 all 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.

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: We produced a series of five short films providing practical, easy-to-follow advice on how to make fishing boats more stable. This covered topics like 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 at the time of writing, the films (including the one pictured above) had been watched more than 6,000 times. For more information, and to see the films, visit RNLI.org/stability.