More needs to be done to protect Canada’s fishermen: report
Posted June 30, 2012 10:23 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – We need to do more to protect our fishermen. That’s the word coming from a Transportation Safety Board report that shows one mariner a month dies in Canada.
The three-year report highlights 10 key areas for improvement.
Lead investigator Glenn Budden says hundreds of marine accidents are reported to the TSB every year, but it’s the ones involving fishing vessels where they see the most fatalities.
“Regulations alone will not solve the safety issues in the industry,” says Budden. “One of the things we looked at was providing safety information to family members. Fisherman perceive risks differently than what their children or their wife would perceive it as.”
Budden admits its an uphill climb to make any immediate changes on the vessels.
“People ask us all the time ‘Are you making any difference?’ or ‘Are these things evolving and making a difference in the industry?’ Those kinds of statistics take years to come about. But what I can tell you from my own experience, five or six years ago we couldn’t spell the word safety in the fishing industry.”
The recommendations include more safe-work practices, using proper life-saving devices like life jackets, and stricter training.
