Free safety guide for fishing vessels.

Free safety guide for fishing vessels

Preparing and presenting your vessel properly for inspection or survey will save you both time and money. Forward planning and preparation could make the difference between success and failure. This leaflet sets out useful advice to help ensure that your next inspection or survey is a successful one. Applying for inspection or survey Apply early to your local Marine Office. Your inspection or survey can begin up to six months before your Fishing Vessel Certificate expires. Your local Marine Office can advise you of this date of expiry if you are unsure. Organise your inspection or survey to limit the number of visits the inspector or surveyor must make. If your vessel is well prepared, then most inspections or surveys can be completed in one visit.

For all those fishermen in the south west, Clive at Seafood Cornwall Training Clive is here to help:

Contact 07967 009412 or safety@seafoodcornwalltraining.co.uk

Under 15m LOA Vessels

For vessels of less than 15m Length Overall (LOA) the first visit to inspect the vessel against MSN 1871 is free, but any return visits will be charged for. Vessels of 15m LOA and over

Most surveys on vessels of over 15m can be completed in two visits. The most efficient order for these surveys is an ‘out of water’ survey followed by an ‘afloat’ survey.

Ensure your Marine Consultant conducts stability checks while the surveyor is conducting the afloat survey as and when applicable. The surveyor will advise you what tests are required. 2

Relevant Codes

Before you start, check which type and length of vessel you are operating so that you comply with the relevant Code requirements. Note that the Codes may be amended. You should check that you are using the most current amendment.

> Less than 15m LOA – MSN 1871

> 15m LOA to less than 24m Registered Length (L) – MSN 1872

> 24m L and over MSN 1873

Our Marine Office contact details can be found on gov.uk.



MSN 1871 allows vessels of less than 15m built before 16 July 2007 to be considered by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) for Registration as fishing vessels. As part of the process MCA requires evidence that such vessels are safe and suitable for commercial fishing.

Since 2007, this evidence has been provided to the MCA by Seafish, whose surveyors (at the vessel owner’s expense) survey such vessels against Seafish Construction Standards and submit their report to the MCA for consideration.

Seafish ceased undertaking these surveys on 1 December 2017. MCA now oversees these surveys, which are conducted by Authorised Surveyors on behalf of the MCA. This Notice sets out the processes now in place to deal with vessels wishing to Register as fishing vessels.

What does your Dad do?

This letter was in response to the article that appeared in the Scottish Herald recently:

"When Scottish fisherman’s young children are being bullied by their school mates for their parents occupation, it is well past the time to simply look away, and say nothing. Our planet's ecosystems are in trouble, our oceans are warming, weather patterns are changing, and it is an entirely human response to want to arrest this crisis. 

But the challenges faced by our oceans will not be solved by ‘hot air’. Neil Mackay’s 21st November (see above) is the latest article that puts spin before substance and I fear will only add heat to an already inflamed debate. It was a missed opportunity for the Herald to offer its readers balance by providing a view from fishermen and organisations that do not share Mr. Philp's view. 

While this publication may see Marine Scotland as the main protagonist with a right to reply, a quick look at comments and social media demonstrates that yet again it is hard working fishermen in the firing line. Facts, matter. There can be no doubt that fisheries and the marine environment is a complex subject both to explain and resolve. It is essential that we are all honest about what we think, and what we can prove. All scientists are created equal, but some are more equal than others. It is lazy and wrong to produce a narrative of simple soundbites to whip up public support. This too, won’t save our oceans. So while it is essential that all voices are heard on this, my advice is simple: look for those that offer evidence to support their positions, then go challenge that evidence! 

With no scientific background, I led two judicial reviews that overturned dredging licenses where applicants spent thousands on scientific opinion. It has also been my absolute pleasure to work with some great marine scientists. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it. I'm continually disappointed when I read articles that proclaim creeling “is the sustainable way to fish” as if simply removing towed activity from an area is an absolute solution. It is not. One unintended consequence of closed trawling areas is that they become safe havens for static gear, this can lead to an explosion of the number of pots and nets. Some of the first areas down south to restrict trawlers have static gear fishermen now looking to regulators to see what can be done to restrict the number of boats and gear used in an area as their catches and incomes fall. Everyone thinks their crow is blacker. The seabed is impacted by all gear that touches it. Those impacts will depend on the type of gear, and habitat. 

As mentioned, I am no scientist, but I can see that dropping a dredge on a serpulid reef isn't good. But it is difficult to see how dragging 50-100 creel pots on a string across the same ground to haul is either. 

The picture above is me, 50+ years ago sticking my nose into someone's nets on the quayside in Looe, Cornwall where I grew up. My father, having demobbed from the RAF moved to Looe and took an engineering job in the town’s pilchard factory, mother was a ‘canning girl’. By the time I was born the pilchards, and the cannery were long gone. But now the SW of England has a healthy and successful MSC certified Sardine fishery (aka pilchards) which is under careful management. At the time of this picture my fishing village was so full that someone had to sell a boat for you to be able to get a mooring. It now has but a handful. 

Scotland's fishing communities will be full of these stories, rich and proud fishing heritage and rebounding stocks too. The steep decline in the number of fishing vessels and fishermen over the past 50 years has been a heavy price paid by fishing communities everywhere. But what is left, is one of the most highly regulated industries with stocks supported by robust monitoring and science. The debate between fishermen saying it is all going too far and fast, and others that it is not going far or fast enough will continue, of that I am sure. But when those debates take the form of campaigns, and those campaigns use unsubstantiated claims, and half truths, that lead to young children being bullied for their fathers work, it's time to stop and take a long, hard look at your approach. 

So to all involved, please, be honest, and kind".

(by Terri Portmann)

Amen to Arwen.

Sunday morning saw the guys on the Enterprise...
 

glad to be back in through the gaps after fishing through storm Arwen over the weekend to land a full trip on Monday morning's market ...

with the usual mix of plaice...

as did the Trevessa IV...

a good haul of red mullet will keep the quality restaurants happy...

while the netter Stelissa landed haddock...

plenty of megrims...

Cap'n Cod was one of the first to get to sea on Sunday once the storm had passed...

as were the sardine boats later in the day, young mr Pascoe landing pilchards for a change...

the bog boats often pick up the odd bass, seldom in any quantity...

the same as weavers a not so common sight during the winter months...

the big boat landed a few tons of cuttles for their troubles...

while the Ocean Pride touched on a good haul of coley...

and the Silver Dawn picked up the odd scad...

to go with team Cornish Fish Direct's hake...

tope don't come much bigger than this...

or tub gurnard...

but it was the big blue fin tuna that took the top place for size this morning...

what a difference a day makes...

busy forklift traffic clearing the market...

a better idea of the size of these huge fish...

that is most of the beam trawl fleet still in port...

with the whaleback washer in full flow on the Enterprise...

the Unity works a huge clump in between her twin-rig trawls.

Braced for a full-on #FishyFriday gale tonight courtesy of storm Arwen.

All but the biggest boat in the fleet are due back in port today as the first of the winter's storm headed down from the north...

a handful of inshore boats piled in with fish like these superb red ullet...

while the two beam trawlers popped ashore fish like a brace of brill...

as ever miserable looking turbot...

John Dory...

ray...

and a few squid, one is without the vey fragile brown film that cover them...

a 'git louster' of a ling...

the thinking fish of the sea, ever-quizzical looking red gurnards...

and plenty of megrim soles...

Dover soles a-plenty...

and monk tails...

and the biggest plaice of the day courtesy of young Jimmy on the Billy Rowney...

the handliners braved the wind to land mackerel...

and a few line-caught bass...

one of the last netters to land was the Govenek of Ladram...

boxes coming ashore under the watchful eye of skipper Robert Goddard...

as the crew rush their week's haul into the chill fridge...

the harbour's Cornish flag will fly at half-mast in respect of Billy Stevenson whose funeral service will take place in the harbour on December the 3rd...

he no doubt would have had his binoculars trained on the Trevessa IV as she headed for the fish market

possibly even offering suggestions over the radio on the best approach to take before they land...

with young Dan working the landing gear...

his brother-in-law has the Enterprise away this trip, the only Newlyn boat still at sea during storm Arwen currently fishing south of the Scillys, even this far south the winds hit Force 10 during the night, so it's a relatively calm force 9 by Saturday morning.

Irish Fisheries Data Collection

 

Irish waters contain some of the most productive fishing grounds in Europe. Marine Institute scientists collect information to help build a picture of the current state of each fish stock. This is then used for future management and to identify research needs.

Vacancy at W Stevenson & Sons Ltd, Newlyn.

Mid-week market of quality inshore and net fish.

The inshore biats fed this morning's market with fish like these brill...

red gurnard...

a few Dover sole...

the odd monk tail...

a few different species of ray...

and flats like plaice...

while the netter Ygraine  made a good landing of MSC Certified hake...

Tome on the Harvest Reaper continued to pick up a handful of squid...

and the Phoenix picked away a few red mullet ...

alongside the one and only sand sole on the market...

plenty of haddock came with the hake...

along with a few small cuckoo ray.