Commercial fishing crews in B.C. now required to wear life-jackets on deck
The organization that oversees worker safety in British Columbia is taking steps to reduce risks faced by commercial fishing crews. WorkSafeBC says all crew members on the deck of a fishing vessel must now wear a life-jacket or personal flotation device. Until the amendment took effect June 3, workers on commercial fishing boats were only required to wear a life-jacket when working under conditions that involved a risk of drowning.,,, The updated regulation stems from Transportation Safety Board recommendations made after the fatal capsizing of the fishing vessel Caledonian near Tofino in September 2015. Three of the four crewmen died and the lone survivor was the only one wearing a life-jacket. >click to read<16:35
I was really disappointed when I read this report. The incompetence is pretty evident in the Transportation Safety Board and how they talk about the accumulation of paint on the hill being part of the problem..I say bullshit to that. There is no discussion about the failure of the safety equipment on board. The epirb that the vessel was required to carry never sent out a distress signal and was never found. The liferaft never deployed or released until the vessel sank after spending a long time on the keel. The liferaft drifted away away very fast and the survivor had to swim for it and barely made it. Wes unfortunately didn’t… to say life jackets are the answer is bullshit. They are only part of the solution. In typical incompetent fashion the bureaucracy only looked at part of the problem and not the solutions. Transport Canada, the Transportation Safety Board and WorkSafe are also part of the problem. Until you are fixed we will continue to have problems. No one I see in those jobs has the knowledge or experience to fix the problems. I can also say the same for the Miss Cory tragedy where I lost an excellent crewman and friend. Another friend has been unfairly blamed but we know shit runs downhill. Maybe I should have really been a plumber instead of a fisherman…
Over and out
Brent Melan