Safety recommendations for fishing fleets

A new initiative in Plymouth to offer support for safer working practices, across commercial and charter fishing fleets, has been backed by the council.

Plymouth City Council said it came 10 years after the introduction of locator beacons which were fitted in personal flotation devices.

The motion by councillors Tudor Evans and Josh McCarty aimed to investigate new design and technologies in the lifejackets.

McCarty said fishing was the most "dangerous" occupation in the UK so it was "great to see the council once again seek funding to offer practical support to our local fleet".

Plymouth City Council said it was committed to fund next generation kit with enhanced features.

The council said since then, the city's life jacket scheme had distributed hundreds of units, fitted with personal locator beacons and the project has been replicated and rolled out across the country.

It said the motion was "passed unanimously" and it was working with the industry to seek funding to provide one to one support from safety experts to all commercial and charter vessels to help identify and remove or mitigate operational risks, alongside training and the development of new best practice protocols.

Evans said the locators helped "take the search out of search and rescue".

He said the "challenges are the same but the knowledge and data of risks that cause loss of life and accidents is greater, and we can hopefully use this information to help our fishermen identify those risks on their vessels and how to remove or mitigate them".

"We want to support our fishermen to be pioneers once again, moving to a culture of proactive risk management that prevents accidents."

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