The Report of the re-opened formal investigation into the loss of the FV Gaul made four recommendations for consultation with the fishing industry. In putting these recommendations forward, the Wreck Commissioner was aware that they were likely to have been superseded by improvements in design and working practices that had evolved over the 30 years since the loss of the FV Gaul. Nevertheless, he considered that, because of their fundamental importance to the safety of fishing vessels, they should be reviewed again.
The recommendations stated that:
“permanent openings into critical internal spaces of a vessel, that could be submerged periodically and that are required to be kept open for intermittent purposes during fishing operations can usually be avoided by design. Such openings that do exist should have effective and, ideally passive or automatic means of closure;
automatic pumping arrangements together with water level alarms should be fitted to any space which may be vulnerable to flooding which would significantly reduce the vessel’s stability;
warning lights should be installed in the wheelhouse to indicate any openings, watertight doors or hatches which remain open”.
The issues covered by these recommendations were initially addressed by the Fishing Vessels (Safety Provisions) Rules 1975, which came into force in 1 May 1975. For vessels built on or after 1 January 1999, further safety requirements were introduced by the Fishing Vessels (EC Directive on Harmonised Safety Regime) Regulations 1999, which came into force on 1 December 1999.
The final recommendation was that a CCTV camera, with a monitor on the bridge, should be fitted to allow the officer of the watch to monitor continually any large working spaces that are vulnerable to flooding and which may be left unattended for relatively long periods of time.
The Fishing Vessels (EC Directive on Harmonised Safety Regime) Regulations 1999 require all vessels to be fitted with an audio and visual alarm (not necessarily a CCTV camera). It is considered that this requirement ensures an equivalent level of protection against flooding of the spaces mentioned in the recommendation.
Since the publication of the report on the FV Gaul in 2004, the Department’s Fishing Industry Safety Group (FISG), which includes representatives of the fishing industry, has been conducting-a review of all Rules and Regulations applicable to vessels of 24 m registered length and over. This review will consolidate, update and enhance the current legislation into one Code of Practice, in line with Better Regulation principles.
The review is expected to be completed in the spring and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) will then undertake a consultation exercise on behalf of FISG. The intention is that the new Code will come into force in winter 2007-08, and will also take account of the four recommendations made in the FV Gaul report.