Marine Accident Investigation Branch
The report into MAIBs investigation of the capsize and foundering of the fishing vessel JMT (M99) on 9 July 2015 is now published.
The report contains details of what happened and the subsequent actions taken.
A safety flyer for the fishing industry summarising the accident and detailing the safety lessons learned has also been produced.
Statement from the Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents
The loss of FV JMT is one of many fatal accidents involving small fishing vessels that have capsized because their crews did not understand the fundamental principles of stability.
However, in common with nearly all fishing vessels <15m, FV JMT had not been provided with any stability information that might have given its crew some indicators on how to operate the boat safely.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency has confirmed its commitment to introducing stability criteria for new fishing vessels <15m. This is a welcome initiative that will ultimately improve fishing safety over time but will have no impact on the safety of the UKs existing small fishing vessel fleet for the foreseeable future.
The difficulties of providing existing small fishing vessels with comprehensive stability criteria are understood. However, the Wolfson mark, provides a practical and relatively inexpensive method of giving fishermen some indication about how to operate their vessels within safe limits.
The MAIBs report into the loss of the FV JMT therefore contains two key recommendations:
- to require all skippers to attend the Seafish stability awareness course; and
- to fit the Wolfson mark to all existing fishing vessels <15m
If taken forward, these measures should help prevent the sudden capsize of small fishing vessels in the future and the tragic loss of life that such events will often cause.
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