In February, 38 Northern Irish fishermen took part in Man-Overboard (MOB) Awareness and Recovery training at the National Maritime College of Ireland in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork. This free training, funded by the Trinity House Maritime Charity, is part of the…
Last week, FN provided examples of two of the many vessels around the British Isles that have been unable to fish since inspection under the new Under-15m Code – vessels made by Island Plastics and Cheetah Marine. This week we…
On 22 January, Hull’s Hessle Road celebrated one of its own when a plaque was unveiled at the former home of Lillian Bilocca, who led the successful campaign for better safety at sea after the 1968 Triple Trawler Disaster. Her biographer…
One year ago, on 27 January, 2021, the Nicola Faith BS 58 went missing off the coast of Conwy with three men onboard. The bodies of skipper Carl McGrath (34) and crewmen Ross Ballantine (39) and Alan Minard (20) were…
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is reminding the industry to prepare for new out-of-water inspections of small fishing vessels, to avoid the updated code catching fishermen out. The regulatory body wants fishermen to take advantage of the advice and…
The Seafarers Charity’s project to develop safety management onboard fishing vessels to the standard of the Fishing Safety Management Code is well underway, with an initial 50 vessels in the South West of England having signed up. The new service,…
One year ago, The Seafarers’ Charity published its landmark report ‘Fishing Without a Safety Net’, exposing the invisible financial and mental health struggles of small-scale coastal fishers. A bespoke programme of support called ‘The Safety Net’ has now been launched,…
Hartlepool RNLI volunteers were paged on 20 October to assist an 11m fishing boat with three people onboard that had suffered mechanical failure two miles off Blackhall, County Durham – and that had been taken under tow by Royal Navy…
A programme of training courses has restarted to make fishermen more aware of the perils of man overboard incidents. Falling overboard is the biggest single cause of workplace fatalities in the industry. To help combat this, the RNLI and Seafish,…
The MCA has launched a new 24/7 online self-service registry for emergency beacons such as the emergency position-indicating radio beacons (EPIRBs) and personal locator beacons (PLBs). The agency says the new digital portal will make it easier and more convenient…
