The coroner investigating the deaths of three fishermen from the Mi Jay in 2005 pressed for monitored emergency beacons to be fitted to all fishing boats and their liferafts. It is said that the 13m Mi Jay, owned by Nelson company Crusader Fisheries, disappeared after leaving Nelson on November 22, 2005. After few days the bodies of the crews were found on December 19, 2005, in a liferaft off the Kaikoura Coast. But the boat and the body of skipper Paul Rees were not traced.
At the releasing of investigation report coroner David Crear recommended fishing boats and their liferafts be fitted with 406 Epirb emergency beacons as a requirement for boats to be issued a Safe Ship Management Certificate. He also demand that Maritime NZ should investigate the logistics of installing tracking systems so that the real-time location of emergency beacons can be determined.
The report mentions that mariners needed to be made aware of the importance of scheduled reporting systems too. Crerar said that the Mi Jay was equipped with an Epirb but it did not comply with the appropriate standards and was ineffective. It was unclear whether the boat’s liferaft had an Epirb.
Maritime NZ spokesman Ross Henderson said Epirbs were already mandatory for commercial fishing boats that operated beyond the range of VHF radio. He said since these boats did not have to have an additional emergency beacon in their liferafts, maritime rules required Epirbs to be easily accessible, so that they could be removed quickly if there was a need to abandon the boat.
