Safety Bulletin 05 - Fisherman and Safety Awareness at Sea

When fishing in waters off the Australian coast, fishermen will encounter large trading ships. Unfortunately, sometimes ships and fishing vessels collide. The ATSB has investigated 21 of these collisions since 1990. In two collisions investigated, the skippers of the fishing vessels were trapped in their wheelhouses and drowned when the vessels sank. The investigations have revealed that in almost all the collisions, there were similar factors present which contributed to the accident and precautions had not been taken that may have saved a life or at least aided the search for survivors.