As the lobster season is about to kick off in southwest Nova Scotia, Fish Safe NS wants people to know that it is important for fishing vessels to not only perform regular safety drills, but also routinely document them.
According to the executive director of Fish Safe NS, Dylan Buchanan, Transport Canada is seeking to ensure vessels not only have safety plans in place but that they are documented and practiced. An easy way to keep all this information in place, said Buchanan, is to utilize the safety logbooks developed by Fish Safe NS.
“Transport Canada now will review your documents to make sure that you have a plan, like a man overboard plan, and they are also going to be confirming that you’re documenting them,” said Buchanan.
Failure to properly prepare, document and practice a sufficient safety plan, according to Transport Canada, will result in a marine safety inspector issuing a deficiency notice with code 16, wherein vessels must rectify any identified issue within 30 days or a code 17, where a vessel must correct any safety issues before departure.
“We’ve kind of been proactive in preaching to people that it’s one thing to do your drills, but it’s another thing to document it so people know you’re doing your drills,” said Buchanan. “That’s really what we’ve been focusing on.”
Fish Safe NS has documentation and checklists in place to ensure that crews know how to perform things like man-overboard drills, for example.
“So, there’s sounding the alarm. You want to have somebody to keep the man overboard in sight. You want to mark the position on the navigational equipment with the man overboard button. Do a distress alert call, if need be. If you have a man overboard, it’s not a bad idea to get the call out there in case there’s other boats in the area that can help,” said Buchanan.
“One of the things that people don’t always think of is that if you have a man overboard, one thing you can do is put your life raft in the water. People mostly think that the life raft is for if the boat is sinking, but in terms of a man in the water you can always deploy your life raft.”
Besides man-overboard drills, Buchanan said it is important to stay up to date on fire drills, flooding drills, abandon ship drills and medical emergency drills. He recommended that safety drills be performed once per month or any time a new crew member is brought on board.
“It’s important to do your drills every now and then, anyways, but especially before you start a season,” said Buchanan. “It’s good to have a safety meeting with your crew, so they know where everything is. That ties back into Transport Canada saying they’re going to have a really strong focus on that.”
Drills can only go so far if you have inadequate equipment, said Buchanan. He said that routine gear inspection and documentation go hand-in-hand with any well-designed safety plan.
“Make sure your gear is all up to date. Make sure your life raft is inspected and make sure your EPIRB (Electronic Position-Indicating Radiobeacon) is registered. You’re also supposed to test it once a month, so test your EPIRB,” said Buchanan. “Make sure you’re checking that your extinguishers are up to date and make sure your vessel safety certificate is up to date. Even visual inspections, like making sure the rope on your life ring is in good shape.”
One safety component Buchanan said should be at the top of anyone’s list is always wearing a personal flotation device (PFD). He said that while the use of PFDs has become more commonplace, the push to get total compliance is still ongoing and important.
“We’ve seen it improve over the years. It’s not really where it needs to be. Obviously, it needs to be at 100 per cent. I don’t know if we’ll ever get there, but that’s where the goal should be,” said Buchanan. “That’s definitely one that we’re trying to pound in people’s heads.”
Finally, Buchanan wanted to stress the importance of documenting all safety drills.
“Even if you’re doing all this stuff, if you’re not recording it, in the eyes of the people that are inspecting you — it didn’t happen,” said Buchanan.
