Joanna C owner fined £100k
18th July 2024
The owner of the Brixham-registered scalloper that sank off the East Sussex coast in 2020 with the loss of two crew has been fined more than £100,000. Thirty-eight-year-old Robert Morley and Adam Harper, aged 26, died when the Joanna C capsized and sank off Newhaven on 21 November, 2020 (FN, 3 December, 2020, ‘Joanna C: Two men lost with vessel off Newhaven’). A third man, skipper David Bickerstaff, survived the sinking.
Owner of the vessel Laura D Fishing Ltd pleaded guilty at West Hampshire Magistrates’ Court on 5 July to failing to take all reasonable steps to ensure that a vessel was operated in a safe manner, under two sections of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995.
The court heard that extensive changes made to the vessel – which were not approved by the MCA – led to the scalloper being ‘significantly non-compliant with the minimum standards of stability’.
The year prior to the sinking Joanna C had undergone a major refit, including the addition of a whaleback, an extension of the wheelhouse and fitting raised bulwarks. These, along with other modifications, affected the stability of the vessel.
However, the scalloper continued fishing, without the owner ‘considering the impact and risks of the modifications’.
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) investigation into the tragedy found that the Joanna C had been modified several times during its 40 years of operation, including extensive modifications in 2007 and 2019, ‘the cumulative effect of which eroded Joanna C’s reserves of stability and increased the vessel’s vulnerability to capsize’.
The MAIB investigation concluded that the detrimental effect of the modifications was unknown to both the crew and the regulator because, although a stability assessment was begun after the 2019 modifications, the analysis was never completed. Laura D Fishing Ltd was fined £36,000 and ordered to pay £69,284 in costs, along with a £190 surcharge.
Mark Cam, senior investigator with the MCA’s Regulatory Compliance Investigations Team, said: “This is a tragic reminder that modifications to vessels should be planned and their effects on the vessel’s stability properly investigated, using appropriate professionals.
“Companies are responsible for providing a safe place of work for their employees, wherever that may be. The court has found that Laura D Fishing Ltd did not take all reasonable steps to operate the Joanna C in a safe manner, and this led to the deaths of Adam and Robert.”
A memorial to Robert Morley and Adam Harper, and other fishermen who have lost their lives off the Sussex coast, was unveiled in Newhaven in 2022.
This story was taken from the latest issue of Fishing News. For more up-to-date and in-depth reports on the UK and Irish commercial fishing sector, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.30 here.
Sign up to Fishing News’ FREE e-newsletter here.
