Thanks to your support, the RNLI is helping to make the seas a safer place for the people who put fish on our tables

Commercial fishing in the cold, rough seas around the UK and Republic of Ireland is a hazardous profession. Pushing their boats ever
further out in search of a catch, the men and women who supply us with freshly caught seafood risk accident and injury every time they do their jobs. For many commercial fishermen, tragedies at sea seem inevitable – but are they? RNLI analysis shows time and time again that many of the common causes of death and injury – including fires, equipment failure, man overboards, leaks and swamping – need not have occurred. Sheryll Murray is MP for South East Cornwall, and knows all too well that changes – some of them pretty simple – are needed to make the industry safer. In March 2011, her husband Neil didn’t come home from his fishing trip. His body was eventually discovered onboard his boat Our Boy Andrew, where he had been crushed to death by machinery.

‘A toggle on Neil’s oilskin jacket got snagged in a hydraulic net drum, and he couldn’t turn the mechanism off,’ explains Sheryll. ‘If Neil had had a safety stop button within reach, or if fishermen’s jackets didn’t come with toggles, maybe things would have been different.

‘Safety is a massive issue in this industry and it’s getting a little better. But with complacency comes an increased rate of accidents, so we need to keep the reminders coming. You may do something onboard your boat 100 times with no problems, but if you’re not paying attention, that 101st time could be a completely different outcome.’ This year, reducing deck machinery incidents is an all-important part of the RNLI’s target – to halve the number of coastal deaths by 2024. It’s one of many several ways that we are working with commercial fishing crews to make changes. Frankie Horne (pictured right) is the RNLI’s fishing safety manager, and a volunteer crew member at Peel Lifeboat Station. He helped deliver our new deck machinery safety campaign to the Fisheries All-Party Parliamentary Group in January. A day later he was reminded why the campaign is so vital: ‘What happened really
shows why we’re running this safety initiative,’ says Frankie, pictured left. ‘We launched thecampaign on Monday, and on Wednesday I
was at the House of Commons presenting the campaign to politicians, who were so impressed and supportive. Less than 24 hours later, I was at a fishing port giving first aid to a fisherman who had suffered a deck machinery injury. ‘It is an incredible coincidence – but it shows how important our campaign is, trying to reduce incidents just like this one.’

Words: Laura Rainbow
Photos: RNLI/Nigel Millard