Morning Session

Co-chaired by Bruce Logan, UFAWU and Gina Johansen, Fish Safe

1.            Fish Safe Updates

Presented by Gina Johansen

The meeting began with a statement of the objectives for the Fish Safe morning session which included:

• To inform and provide a forum for input into safety issues and identify needs
• To engage fishermen to be a part of the development of a safety and health program for the fishing industry
• To make better use of the resources we have available to improve safety

 In regard to resources Gina highlighted the "Gearing Up for Safety Manual" and explained that it was more than just a book of good ideas and best practices but that it was based on WCB regulatory requirements and provided procedures and checklists that would be useful to all on board fishing vessels.

2)           Claims/Assessments  (attachment)

Statistics on injuries and fatalities to date as well as reporting requirements were provided in a handout.  It was pointed out that the amount of claims in proportion to last year shows an approximate decrease of 10%.    Hearing loss is a high cost claim and prevention should be promoted by the use of hearing protection. Costs of claims could also be reduced if proper first aid was rendered on puncture wounds that if not treated properly can lead to loss of function.

3)           Coverage and Assessments

A brochure type document is being co-produced by Fish Safe and Worksafe to clearly identify coverage and registration requirements for fishermen.  This document will be used by both Worksafe staff and the fishing industry to bring some consistency in applying policies around coverage and registration.  A draft is expected in October.  This is as a result of bi-monthly meetings with assessments and policy staff.

Fishing claims forms were available in packages provided by Fish Safe and reporting requirements for vessel masters and owners were reviewed.

4)           Fish Safe Stability Education Program

Presented by Gina Johansen and Barb Howe, Quinte Marine Ltd.

As a result of 30 years of recommendations by every regulatory agency as well as fishermen themselves a Stability Education Program proposal has been developed.  The proposal addresses the practical needs outlined by fishermen and recommended by educational research on adult learning.  The methodology, design and approach for this program authored by Barb Howe, M. Ed of Quinte Marine Services is unique in that its objective is to provide a learning environment anchored in the experience that fishermen bring to the program.  The goal is to have fishermen build on this experience and take away practical, immediately useful knowledge that they can apply to their operation.  The program was developed around adult education principles that focus on the learner, interactive and problem solving techniques. Participation in the course will be open to all fishermen and members of the fishing industry, with no sea time requirements.

Delivery will be open to training institutions and educational consultants who have completed the train the trainer workshop provided. The proposal for the program has been presented to WCB, TC and HRDC for funding and approval.  In order to ensure accessibility to the program it will need to be subsidized.  Fishing companies and marine insurance are in a position to help ensure attendance.

Transport Canada has approved the program curriculum as meeting their FM111 stability exam.  HRDC is reviewing the proposal for funding initiatives and WCB has not formally responded to the proposal.  The proposal will be presented at the opening plenary of National CMAC.

A pilot program is slated for the week of January 23, 2006 and participants were given the opportunity to sign up for the course.

Comments:

• A step in the right direction
• We recommended education first before regulations
• Industry is diminishing

5)           "Measuring Stability" Video is in production to be used as a tool in the Fish Safe Stability Education program or in a module in the tool box.

A video clip was provided on the work done to date featuring a meeting with the Naval Architect and the vessel owner discussing lines plans and general arrangement as required for completion of a stability book.  This DVD will provide fishermen with an interactive approach in understanding the science behind a stability book and where the numbers come from in basic stability calculations.  An incline experiment and a roll period test will be filmed and a stability book with instructions will be produced that can be used as a part of the classroom module.

6)           DFO Policy and Vessel Safety                           

Presented by Rita Purdon, Project and Policy Development, DFO

As a result of recommendations made at previous meetings involving safety in the fishing industry and the need for DFO to participate, WCB and Fish Safe approached DFO to have a person assigned to work on safety and health.  A working group is being developed that will include fishermen, WCB, TSB, TC, DFO and Fish Safe to discuss and make recommendations in regard to DFO policy and vessel safety.  The goal is to streamline some of the overlap and any duplication that DFO has created and to also look at removing policies that inhibit safe operation of vessels.  Fishermen signed up to work on the committee.

7)           Transport Canada Fishing Vessel Regulatory Reform  

Presented by Bruce Logan

Bruce reported on the status of the Fishing Vessel Regulatory Reform.  It is expected that some of the regulatory changes will be in place by spring 2006.  These included personnel regulations and voyage classification.  Fishing Vessel Regulations have not been re-visited since the National CMAC meetings in May and Program Manager, Kevin Monahan mentioned that they would expect to begin a new draft in the spring of 2006.  This would allow us some more time for input and another opportunity to make any changes.  He noted that Transport Canada is cognizant of the fact that unless they have buy in from industry that the new regs would be difficult to enforce so they are encouraging participation in the final draft.

National CMAC will be held in the first week of November and it is expected that Fishing Vessel Regs will be reviewed at that time as well. 

Comments:

• Concerns were expressed in regard to the cost of meeting the new regulations and a reiteration of the fact that industry has asked for education to be put first ahead of regulations.
• A question was raised on whether there was any plan by TC to phase out vessels that don't conform to the new regs.
• Bruce will take all concerns to National CMAC.  Bruce Logan, Gina Johansen, Peter Ryan, Joe Bauer and Barb Howe will be attending. 

8)           Current Safety Issues - Discussion

These topics were brought to the agenda for discussion by the participants in the committee.

Life raft Stowage:  Brian Lewis of the TSB cited several cases in his investigations that indicated that the liferaft was not able to deploy properly and that where the life raft was stowed appears to be an issue.  He hoped that vessel owners would take this into consideration when finding a place on the vessel to stow the life raft, ie: where will it be accessible to deploy, will it be caught in the rigging,etc? 

Comments:

It was suggested that liferaft companies be included in discussions and seminars in regard to this issue and become more aware of the use of the liferaft in the fishing environment.

9)           Crew Size         

Bruce Logan brought up the question of whether crew size is a contributing factor in vessel accidents.  He cited the Hope Bay and Ocean Tor as examples in the trawl industry and also pointed out the herring fishery as one that has issues with the number of men on board.  It was pointed out that the use of smaller crews can be attributed to many factors including economic ones and that although it has become the norm for many years and tends to work under good conditions that it may be and issue in an emergency.

Comments:

• Minimum manning requirements is worthwhile discussing and should be researched for fishing vessels
• No regulations on manning requirements exist for the majority of the vessels in the fishing industry due to their size
• More regulations are not needed, more education is needed
• Economics should not be an issue

10)          Creating a PFD Habit

Fish Safe has undertaken a joint project with safety suppliers to research the use of PFD's (collar style) on board and document how to create a PFD habit.  Volunteers are needed to participate and commit to the promotion of the use of pfd's while working.  The goal is to first test the design of the existing collars for practicality while working on board and second to design a program of use implementing the use of pfd's into existing work routines on board.

Several products developed specifically for the fishing industry were displayed.

11)          Drills and Safety Procedures

A Fish Safe project is underway to create a cd that shows real BC vessels that have incorporated drills and operating procedures into their everyday fishing routine and also provide the template on how to create safety procedures for your own vessel.  This project will be underway in October and expected to be completed by early January for distribution.  The impetus for this project is that basic safety procedures are not being incorporated into the fishing routine and that until that happens (safety culture) we will not see any progress towards reducing injuries and fatalities.  This tool will provide an educational component to assist in  meeting regulations that exist on safety drills and safe practices on board. (see Gearing up for Safety)

Afternoon Session

12)          Maritime Education Consultants ( Bob Kitching) advised of upcoming courses for watchkeeping mates and fishing masters taught by fishermen.  He asked for industry volunteers to take on trainees on board for 2 months at minimum wage for bridge training.

www.maritimeed.com

13)          Sea-Image SMC Fish System Software

Presented by John Edwards

John Edwards of Sea-Image provided a demonstration of the SMC Fish system.  This is software under development for use on board to track changes in roll and pitch.  It provides early warning on screen and through alarms.  It also incorporates safe loading tables and does not require a stability book for set up.

The system is to be tested on board fishing vessels shortly and a volunteer vessel was identified at the meeting.  This software would be used as a tool on board to provide the vessel with information to assist in making informed operational decisions.  Cost for the product is expected to be $6,000 cad.

More information on this software can be found at www.sea-image.com

Sea Image will be on display at the Fish Safe BC booth at Fish Expo in Seattle, Nov. 17-19, 2005. 

This portion of the meeting was turned over to WCB to facilitate and introduce their

WCB DRAFT Stability Implementation Plan                               

Presented by Shane Neifer, Mike Ross and Harvey Linton - Worksafe BC

14)          WCB Stability Guideline Implementation Draft

WCB provided handouts (attached) of the draft implementation plan and took us through an overview of the status of the plan to date and the history behind it.  It was noted that this was the first time the industry had the opportunity to review the draft plan as it was not circulated prior to the meeting.

It was explained that the draft implementation plan took into consideration industry comments from previous meetings and this was the first opportunity to roll it out to industry for comment.

The draft plan outlined the approach recommended by the board for implementation using the risk criteria under development by Transport Canada and WCB statistical reports. The plan outlines a stepped approach to what the WCB sees as the need for every vessel to have stability instructions as part of their safety procedures.  There was lengthy discussion in regard to what those instructions would look like and who could prepare them.  Industry requested clarification and suggested that WCB work through the process first and provide templates.  Loading matrixes were discussed and concern was noted that in some fisheries it would literally be impossible to document every operating condition.  Shane explained that they had hoped to have a pilot project already underway that would be able to provide industry with examples as well as a standardized format for naval architects.  He will recommend that they move ahead with that proposal.

Harvey spoke briefly on the funding initiatives available for subsidizing industry on the costs of implementing the guideline including educational initiatives.  He explained that funds can be allocated from industry assessments and there are small grants available of up to 15k per year.  He also provided a comparison of costs between incline experiments and the cost of fatalities over a 10 year period.  He cited a WCB cost of 1.3 million for stability related fatalities in 2004 and a cost to industry for inclining of 1 - 1.5 million per year. 

Comments

• Stability book presentation differs depending on the naval architect and it would make sense to have some standardization with the goal of making it easier to understand for the vessel owner - an  initiative is currently underway to make this happen
• The WCB process for accessing stability appears to be less flexible than the Transport Canada requirements and WCB's initiative seems to be a "done deal" as compared to Transport Canada that is still in progress
• Instructions on stability could be included in the stability book and the guideline does not specifically require a loading matrix
• Research in the UK (Wolfson Report) provides examples of loading matrix and posters for readily available instructions for the crew
• Production of instructions would require joint effort between the naval architect and fishermen in order to be successful
• Not enough fishermen were represented at this meeting
• Guideline does not appear to focus on behavioural/operational aspects of stability and unless it does it may not provide the results
• Focus of the implementation should be on the obvious problem vessels

Recommendations

• WCB do a pilot project to document the actual process to be used in safety inspections and that they provide examples/templates for "instructions" as required by the guideline.
• That a risk assessment criteria be designed by industry to identify the "10%", the worst case scenarios (sister ships, etc) and tackle those first
• Stability documentation should be included in overall safety program and procedures (form a component of the safety procedures and instructions on board and not be the only focus)
• Industry create a ‘how to' tool for developing safety procedures for individual vessels
• 15k  annual grant should be assigned to subsidize training programs
• WCB stability guideline assessments to coincide with CSI inspections

Attachments:

Attendance List

WCB Implementation Plan

WCB Power Point Presentation

Fish Safe Stability Education Presentation

Fish Safe Stability Education Program