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Recommendations made after guard boat tragedy have been addressed, says chief executive
The Press and Journal 01/08/2008
Fishing industry bosses have been criticised for not acting on safety recommendations made after a North Sea accident which claimed the life of four men from Fife and Aberdeen.
Sydney Low, 52, of Tillydrone, Aberdeen, was among the four-man crew of the Meridian when she sank in bad weather in 2006. The Fife-registered vessel was guarding a pipeline for an oil company, 160 miles off the north-east coast.
The body of skipper Edward Gardner, 50, from Fife, was recovered. But the bodies of grandfather-of-four Mr Low and Fife men Martin Gardner, 49, and Ian Donald, 55, were never found.
In its investigation into the sinking, the Department of Transport’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch said an early weather warning could have saved the crew – and as a result made a recommendation that companies which contract guard vessels should provide the skipper with long-range warnings of severe weather.
However, in its annual report published yesterday, the MAIB criticised Scottish Fishing Federation Services Ltd, which co-ordinates the provision of guard vessels, saying it had failed to address the issue.
Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, which runs the SFF, said he was surprised by the criticism. “The problem to be addressed was weather forecasting, which was not the actual cause of the tragedy. The MAIB solution of requiring client companies to do this on behalf of boats they had contracted was not realistic.
“Instead, we have worked with our clients to continually share the best information available. This has been the norm for some time.
“We work closely with the MAIB on every incident – I am therefore puzzled by their statement that SFF have failed to address this issue. We have in fact addressed it in a way that has produced a solution which works.”
The MAIB’s annual report reveals the number of people killed in merchant vessel accidents in 2007 was the highest since the organisation was set up. Twelve people lost their lives on merchant vessels, including Dyce man Finlay MacFadyen, 46, one of three men who died when they entered a locker on the Viking Islay in the North Sea.
Chief inspector of marine accidents Stephen Meyer said it was pleasing the actual number of accidents had dropped but he added: “Against this, the 12 fatalities reported in 2007 is the highest number of crew deaths since MAIB was established, and more than twice the number of deaths in any of the previous 15 years.
“Six of the 12 deaths occurred in just two accidents, but even disregarding those deaths, the number was higher than for many years.”
But the report said accidents involving fishermen and fishing vessels are at their lowest level in years.
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