Fishing Industry Safety Group (Promotions Group)

20^th Meeting

MCA – Spring Place

5^th September 2007

Attendees

20.1 and 20.2     CHAIRMAN’S OPENING REMARKS.

20.1.1. The Chairman welcomed the attendees.

20.2.1. The Chairman told the Group that apologies had been received from, Murray Campbell (Fishermen’s Mission): Roger Carlisle and Bill West (MAIB): George Geddes (SFF) and Steve Dexter and Joanne Groenenberg (both MCA) (John Davison attended on Steve’s behalf). Richard Stride (South Coast Fishermen’s Council).

20.3.     MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING AND ACTIONS ARISING.

20.3.1. The Chairman asked if the Group was content with the minutes of the last meeting. The Group was.

20.3.2. With reference to “”””Action 19.2.A:  The Chairman (Dave Fenner – MCA) to liaise with Seafish with reference to the current position of the Seafish Basic Engineering Courses. Action to be completed by 23^rd March 2007. COMPLETE. The courses are now in place and consideration is being given to making them mandatory.””””

20.3.3. Jim Hudson advised that the new course is a good one and a definite improvement on the earlier one which was too “intense”.

20.3.4. The Chairman said that the process for making the course mandatory is underway. FTAG, FISG and the MCA have all been involved and it is now with the MCA to take forward as a high priority. The decision to make it mandatory is viewed as being non controversial.

20.3.5. He added that the MCA was looking into funding for fishermen’s training i.e. on similar lines to the “SMART” funding for Merchant Shipping Cadets. The new MCA Chief Executive, Peter Cardy, is fully behind this initiative.

20.3.6. With reference to: “”””ACTION 19.2.B: The Chairman (Dave Fenner – MCA) to compare the entries in the next issue of the Fishing Industry Handbook for Britain and Ireland (incorporating the Fishermen’s Almanac), to see what is missing from the Federation Yearbooks that if added in would fulfil all the requirements for information that has to be carried on fishing vessels. Action to be completed by 31^st May 2007.””””

20.3.7. There was some confusion over what the actual Action here was. This was clarified and MCA will establish what additional elements are required for the yearbooks to be considered as almanacs

20.3.8. With reference to: “”””ACTION 19.3.A: The Chairman (Dave Fenner – MCA) to liaise further with the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association (AMSEA) regarding their DVD entitled “Fishing Vessel Stability: Operational Practices”. Action to be completed by 30^th April 2007. COMPLETE. DVDs on order.””””

20.3.9. The Chairman advised that the DVDs had not yet arrived, he will chase up.

20.3.10. With reference to: “”””ACTION 19.4.4: The Chairman (Dave Fenner – MCA) to refer the review of the Under 15M LOA Safety Checklist to the Small Fishing Vessel Code Group for their action. Action to be completed by 31st May 2007. ONGOING.””””

20.3.11 The Chairman explained that the action itself was in fact completed but that no action on reviewing the checklist would be carried out until the Small Vessel Code had itself been revised.

20.3.12. With reference to: “”””ACTION 19.5.A: The Chairman (Dave Fenner – MCA) to ascertain whether or not the MCA Surveyor/Sector Managers Checklist (Questionnaires) should continue to be used. Action to be completed by 30^th April 2007.””””

20.3.13. The Chairman told the Group that the Questionnaires will no longer be used.

20.4.     INVOLVEMENT OF “FEMALE FISHERS” IN FISG AND SUB GROUPS ACTIVITY

20.4.1. The Members were unanimous in the view that female fishers would be welcome to be part of the FISG and FISG Sub Group set up but at the moment there are simply not enough female fishers available to become involved. (A few amongst 12,000 or so fishermen).

20.4.2. Of the 30-40 mentioned on the Paper that have done Safety courses it would appear that the majority of those are not fishers as such, some have done the courses to enable them to go on Research vessels others are fishermen’s wives and girlfriends who occasionally go on the vessels. Keir Day said that he was aware of only two female skippers.

20.5.     REPORT ON “ATTITUDES TO SAFETY ONBOARD FISHING VESSELS IN THE NORTHERN PERIPHERY”

20.5.1. As Iain Campbell was co-author of the report he spoke to the Paper. He initially invited comments from the Group. John Noble had put together a list of comments and questions that Iain worked through. Other members also raised issues as indicated below.

20.5.2. John Noble did not think too much of the report believing that the money could have been better spent elsewhere, amongst other issues he asked why for example Banff and Buchan College or similar had not been involved in the creation of the Questionnaire. Also he felt the report was vague having in his view lots of assumptions in it, suggesting that some fishermen do not take responsibility for safety, for themselves and their fellow crew is not the case, “they are not idiots”. He felt that fishermen do not need Psychologists to tell them what to do.

20.5.3. Iain Campbell explained that it was not the sort of Questionnaire where people sat round a table and thought up questions. It was inappropriate to construct the Questionnaire that way. In this case it had to be done using robust Psychology Research Methods to ensure both validity and reliability. He added that he stood by what he viewed as a sound piece of work; it stands up to academic scrutiny. Iain then gave more background on the methodology which is covered in the Report.

20.5.4. Iain went on to say that part of the research was the Intervention Plan itself which saw Willy McLeman (Fishing Vessel Safety Officer; a former Fishing Vessel Skipper himself), over a two year period, visiting over 15m vessels to discuss risk assessment, safety on vessels and to facilitate the completion of the questionnaire.

20.5.5. Jim Evans said that the research was welcome, it gives a chance to get away from our own perceptions of the situation; it may change some of the “culture” in the Industry.

20.5.6. Jim Hudson expressed his opinion that the Report contained a lot of “trumpet blowing” but not a lot of content. There was also a lot of vagueness i.e. in the use of such terms as “seems to”; “may” and “appear to”. He also spoke of one incident where the person carrying out the Intervention on one of their vessels had a “bulldozer” approach and did not properly consult with the skipper.

20.5.7. Iain Campbell responded that he was aware of the incident but as far as he knew this was the only one in a large number of successful interventions. He went on to say that Willy McLeman was trained in facilitation, how to discuss safety as part of a process that would lead on to the owner/skipper doing the vessel’s Risk Assessment. Willy has been very successful in carrying out the task set him.

20.5.8. In respect to the “vagueness” Iain said that in Psychological Research like this you are always dealing with uncertainties and some things may seem “woolly” and no one can claim the absolute truth. Nonetheless the findings are 95% or better to being true.

20.5.9. Iain explained that readers need to look at the graphs quite carefully, this was not helped by the fact that the copies the members had were in black and white. The statistics show that intervention was successful and when you compare the SCOTNI Region with the other two MCA Regions it indicates that incidents have been reduced as a result.

Post Meeting Note 1 : The Report has been accepted for publication in the next issue of the World Maritime University’s Journal. Iain Campbell said that the articles  they publish undergo an academic peer review process beforehand which gives further evidence of the soundness of the Report.

Post Meeting Note 2: after the meeting the Report was e mailed to the Members so that they had the colour version and could also access the Questionnaire itself.

20.5.10. Part of the project covered Icelandic fishermen and Iain advised that the Icelandic Maritime Authorities were quite shocked with the findings and as a result are changing their Five Year Plan to take into account the findings of the Report.

20.5.11. Keir Day brought in the issue of vessel lengths, and although the Report only referred to 15m and over vessels, a discussion ensued about the expanding the Research to look at under 15m vessels.  

20.5.12. Jim Evans said that the findings of the Research should not be ignored, Jim was originally against it, but now feels it was certainly worth doing and there is in fact a need to carry it on into the under 15m category. To also look at the knock on affect on Fishermen’s training.

20.5.13. Keir Day said that he was not totally convinced by the Report. There are a lot of other factors to take into account. In the case of Basic Safety Training fishermen only need to attend the courses and are not assessed. Also how good is the induction that a fisherman gets when he first starts on a vessel? Iain Campbell pointed out, from the Report, that when questioned on this; a quarter of those questioned felt their induction training was good and half felt it was adequate.

20.5.14. David Fuller posed some questions on behalf of Nigel Blazeby.

• In respect of translating the Questionnaire/Report into Spanish. Iain advised that the Spanish were not involved with the project and there was no funding available to do this.
• In respect of different MCA Regions having different approaches to intervention – Iain had no problem with Regions doing different things. He asked that the Report be taken “on board” for the future, there is no “one size fits all” answer and intervention in the SCOTNI style may not be able to be transplanted.
• In respect of the costs Iain gave rough figures. The Research was 60% EU funded over a two year period taking into account the costs of the Report itself and the intervention. The original total was £250k. About £120k was spent of which £86k was for the intervention aspect.

ACTION 20.5.A: Iain Campbell to send a summary of the funding and expenditure details for the “Attitudes to Safety Onboard Fishing Vessels in the Northern Periphery” Research and Report to the Secretariat (Ian Forder) for promulgation to the Members. Action to be completed by 28^th September 2007. COMPLETE.

Post Meeting Note 3: The cost of the project in the UK was £73,846.00 over the two years it was running.  This breaks down to £24,150.00 per annum for the interventions onboard the vessels.  The remainder is difficult to split down as it involved activities peripheral to the actual project, ie. meetings and seminars with European partners, producing the questionnaire, analysis and compiling the reports.  The costs to the partner countries are not known at this time.

The project was 60% funded by the Northern Periphery Project, therefore total cost to the MCA for the project was reduced to £29,538 with the activity on the vessels themselves costing £9,660 per annum.  

20.5.15. Ian Benham advised the Group that the RNLI had been carrying out some research similar in some ways. This has been carried out by the RNLI Fishing Safety Team, primarily in Scotland and South West England. There will be a summary of this research coming out at the end of this year and by Safety Promotion Meeting next February there will be another set of data on attitudes of fishermen, and Ian Benham offered to provide a presentation to the meeting with the RNLI’s Research Manager.  Methodology and results can then be compared.

20.5.16. The pros and cons of carrying out similar research in respect of the under 15m vessels were discussed. One key financial point that Iain Campbell made was that it would be much cheaper carrying it out as intervention as such would no be involved.

20.5.17 The Chairman summarised this topic by saying that there had been diversity of responses on the merit or not of the research and whether further research in respect of vessels under 15m should be supported.

20.5.18 The consensus on the Report was that it was indeed useful in giving a valuable insight into fishermen’s attitudes to safety. There was a consensus in favour of the work being expanded to look at the under 15m vessels scenario. It was accepted by Iain Campbell that there was not a “one size fits all” approach. The MCA would consider the report, both in the Centre and in the Regions, and consider what can be learnt and adopted, both on a national and regional basis.

ACTION 20.5.B: The Chairman (Dave Fenner –MCA)  to send a copy of the “Attitudes to Safety Onboard Fishing Vessels in the Northern Periphery” Report to the Chairman of the Fishing Advisory Training Group (FTAG), with feedback from the Safety Promotion Group discussion. FTAG to be asked to look at the findings and see if they feel that fishermen’s basic and personal induction training could be enhanced. Action to be completed by 28^th September 2007.

ACTION 20.5.C: The Chairman (Dave Fenner –MCA) to prepare a Paper for FISG 64 (in consultation with Iain Campbell - MCA), on behalf of the Safety Promotion Group, to ask FISG to consider the merits of adapting the methods used to conduct research and intervention in the under 15m sector of the Industry. Action to be completed by 18^th September 2007.

20.6     “FISHERMEN AND SAFETY GUIDE” AND “CERTIFICATES HOLDER”

20.6.1. The Secretariat updated the Group with the latest position on the “Guide” and the “Holder” A few more illustrations are being produced and when they are ready they, with the text and photographs etc, will be sent to the designer/printer for their action. Joanne Groenenberg (of the MCA’s Public Relations Branch) will be taking this forward.

20.6.2. Once the draft publication is produced it will be sent round to all the Members prior to the actual publication. The Secretariat was confident that the “Guide” is pretty much as the Group wanted it to be. The mini consultation will ensure that all is in order. The “Certificates Holder” will be produced concurrently with the “Guide” and will complement it.

ACTION 20.6: The Secretariat (Ian Forder – MCA) to send out the current draft to the Members for final comment, while continuing work with PR to get the document to the printers. Action: Current draft document to be sent out at the same time that the draft minutes are sent out.

20.6.3 The Chairman reminded the Group that a fair amount of work has been done as a result of comments coming in from Members and other interested parties from earlier consultations. One key area was that some text was rearranged in a way that questions are asked of the reader as opposed to just giving guidance. He added that it was heavily based on the old guide as the Group had requested.

20.7.     FLOODING VIDEO

20.7.1. Ian Benham gave a verbal report on the latest position. He explained that due to other priorities progress on the Video had slowed somewhat. The RNLI Fishing Safety Team carried out some additional filming, at HMS Excellence, for the opening sequence of an engine room flooding. Keir Day has been involved with the company working on the graphics, they are working on a “mole’s eye view4 through a pipe following the water through and out through a hole into the engine room itself.

20.7.2. Ian is half way through the preparation of a script matrix. He, Keir Day and David Fuller will continue working together to complete the project.  The projected completion date is the end of 2007.

20.8.     “MARKING OF FISHING GEAR” LEAFLET

20.8.1. The Chairman spoke to the Paper which was essentially self explanatory.

20.9. CUSTOMER SURVEY

20.9.1. The Group agreed, bearing in mind that the last Survey had not been successful and that they think that a continuation of Iain Campbell’s work (see minutes on  Agenda Item 5) should be carried out (this would involve the use of a questionnaire) that the Customer Survey should not be followed through at the moment. It should be put on the “back burner” and reconsidered in a couple of years or so.

20.10.     PREPARATION FOR SURVEY LEAFLET - REVIEW

20.10.1. The Chairman spoke to the Paper. The Group agreed that it was a very useful leaflet and that it should be updated as necessary. He asked that the Members send in their comments/suggestions on additions/deletions etc not already considered by the end of September 2007. The Chairman added that consideration is being given to a new format.

ACTION 20.10: The Members to send in their comments/suggestions on additions/deletions etc in respect of the Preparation for Survey Leaflet to the Secretariat (Ian Forder – MCA). Action to be completed by 5^th October 2007.

20.11.     SMALL VESSEL RISK ASSESSMENT LEAFLET

20.11.1. This was for the information of the Group. The Chairman said that he had been working on a small leaflet that will promote the use of written Risk Assessments.

20.12     FIVE YEAR STRATEGY DOCUMENT

20.12.1. The Chairman advised that the Five Year Strategy document will be updated as appropriate after the meeting.

20.13     ANY OTHER BUSINESS

20.13.1 DATE AND VENUE OF THE NEXT MEETING

20.13.1. Wednesday 13^th February 2008 at Spring Place.

20.13.2. FISHING EXHIBITION (GLASGOW) 2008

20.13.2. The Chairman said that Nigel Blazeby is preparing a bid to go to the MCA Executive Board for MCA attendance at the Fishing Exhibition (Glasgow) 2008.

20.13.3. REVIEW OF M NOTICES

20.13.3.1. Jim Hudson and David Fuller have produced a list of key Fishing Vessel Notices. They suggest that the list be produced on CD and distributed appropriately, one avenue being as an insert in the NFFO and SFF yearbooks. The Group agreed that the CD approach is a good one. Other information can also be included on it and a revised one could be issued annually.

20.13.3.2. The Chairman said that he would investigate the funding aspect i.e. whether the MCA could foot the bill. He felt that production of the CDs would not be a significant cost.

ACTION 20.11. The Chairman to investigate, in respect of putting the M Notice List on a CDs, the associated production costs. Action to be completed by 30 September 2007