The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) recently posted a safety bulletin urging fishing vessel owners and crew to review their deck risk assessments ensuring that hazards associated with the shooting or recovery of creels are fully mitigated.
On July 12, 2024, the crew of the fishing vessel Kingfisher were engaged in manually shooting a string of creels approximately 30 nautical miles east-north-east of Wick, Scotland. A deckhand became entangled in a creel’s leg rope and was pulled overboard, where his personal flotation device (PFD) inflated on immersion.
Using the hauling winch, Kingfisher’s crew retrieved the backrope and recovered the now submerged deckhand on board within seven minutes. Despite the efforts of the vessel’s crew, members of a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeboat, a paramedic from an HM Coastguard rescue helicopter, and crewmembers of an attending windfarm guard vessel, the deckhand could not be revived and was declared deceased.
The deckhand inadvertently threaded the creel toggle through his PFD’s safety loop while connecting the toggle to the eye of the leg rope.
The PFD safety loop was a snagging hazard that had not been identified.
The vessel’s onboard risk assessment had not identified the unsuitability of the lifejacket for the work being carried out.
The MAIB issued a recommendation via this safety bulletin to the Home and Dry Safety Forum to immediately communicate through its members the need for owners and crew of creel fishing boats to review their deck working risk assessments to ensure that: hazards associated with shooting or recovering creels, such as risk of entrapment in a running backrope, are fully mitigated; when provided, PFDs are of the required standard and are appropriate for work undertaken; and, when new hazards are identified, the information is shared promptly among the crew and alternative PPE is sourced as soon as possible.