synthesis of the main studies carried out since 2005 by institut

SYNTHESIS OF THE MAIN STUDIES CARRIED OUT SINCE 2005 BY INSTITUT MARITIME
DE PRÉVENTION
UPON REQUESTS BY THE REGION OF BRITTANY.
Brussels, 07 November 2011
Yvon LE ROY
[email protected]
Ergonomical engineer, Institut Maritime de Prévention, 60 avenue de la Perrière 56100 Lorient
www.imp-lorient.com
Since 2005, the Regional Council of Brittany requested Institut maritime de prevention to carry out studies aimed at
assessing the impact of the decisions related to protection of marine resources on safety and living/working
conditions onboard fishing vessels.
These studies mainly deal with the gross tonnage constraints and the limitation of discards at sea. A further study
aims at verifying the practical applicability of the European directive on noise onboard fishing vessels.
This document intends to briefly introduce the link between these different studies and their main results. Each of
them is more detailed in separate memos.
THE LINK BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT STUDIES
The technical solutions aimed at reducing the noise, using more selective fishing gear, handling end storing nonmarketable species that cannot be discharged at sea any more, are all of them space consuming. The present
condition of the fishing fleets is characterized by a high average age (>25 years), limited usable volumes onboard
for living and working due to the gross tonnage limits, dis-optimized vessels due to an important second hand
market and a lack of new constructions. The implementation of appropriate technical solutions is therefore much
more expensive than for new built vessels, and they would require much of the already restricted space onboard,
detrimentally to living and working onboard, and even to intrinsic ship safety.
MAIN RESULTS
Ergospace (period 2005-2007)
Exploiting the available data on the circumstances of reported occupational accident onboard fishing vessels in
France, this study first searched correlations between accident rates and space available onboard. In a second step,
from the analysis of the set of different constraints of all kinds that apply to the design and construction of fishing
vessels, the detrimental role of the regulatory dimensional constraints was strongly highlighted, and particularly the
length and gross tonnage limitations. A comparison was made with the fisheries situations in Denmark, Alaska and
Iceland, which are more or less comparable with France, with the result that the tonnage constraints are not so
critical in these countries as they are in France. As a conclusion, the Ergospace authors recommend new fishing
vessels, free from dimensional constraints, to be built, which would significantly improve their safety and fuel
consumption, while they would comply with the resource protection objectives of the common fisheries policy.
More recently, a similar investigation in Spain (2011) did not bring different views.
Noise abatement onboard fishing vessels (period 2009-2010)
On the basis of noise measurements done onboard a reference fishing vessel, the authors propose defined technical
solutions techniques aimed at reaching compliance of that vessel with the new regulatory framework (EU directive
– 2003/10/EC of 06/02/11) applicable to the maritime sector as from 14/02/11. As a matter of fact, noise levels in
the sleeping rooms do not allow for acceptable rest conditions, which should be a priority for ships engaged in
several days fishing trips. Furthermore, the noise levels measured in the main working positions are liable to
generate ear lesions; if the use of ear protection devices can be envisaged for working at the catch processing
positions, for the fishing gear operations the coordination between the different crew members requires them to
communicate by oral and gesture signals, which is compromised if they wear ear protections. On the basis of the
diagnosis made onboard the reference vessel, different improvement tracks were considered: flexible mounting of
engine, exhaust, vents, hydraulics; sleeping room insulation; active noise control at the beds’ heads; ... All these
solutions require some space, and their implementation is more costly onboard existing vessels than for new
vessels, whose design may include architectural solutions.
New trends regarding discard limitation: impact on occupational safety and working conditions (example of high
sea fresh fishing in Brittany) - (period 2009-2010).
The Britton fishing fleet comprises numerous high seas fresh fishing vessels with 20 to 25 m lengths, manned with
5 or 6 crew members, engaged in 5 to 6 days fishing trips. The problems with regard to keeping onboard all the
catches, or part of them, are particularly complex for this category of fisheries. Following observations he made
onboard during several fishing trips, the author set up scenarios demonstrating that the ship safety, the working
time, the number of heavy loads to be handled and work organization onboard are more or less impacted by the
search for selectivity and the discard prohibition. The author recommends “sorting on sea bottom” (i.e. selectivity)
to be privileged more than “sorting on the deck” (i.e. storage onboard), for available space reasons as well as for
the sake of protecting the profession’s attractiveness. He also underlines the insufficient mechanization of fish
processing with regard to the amounts of fish to be brought to shore. Facilitation of handling onboard and
subcontracting unloading operations will be unavoidable. Onboard some vessels, the disruptions of work
organization will significantly impact resting times, and therefore will damage the quality of the watch.
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