Ken Smith, the inventor of potentially life-saving device, said that fishing is always the most dangerous occupation and the accident rate is very high. He informed that almost 60 percent of losses are due to instability to think to make the industry much safer. The UK fishing industry is dealing with this fact for quite a long time. Studies have shown that the fatality rate among UK fishermen is 115 times higher than for the workforce as a whole.
Recently few crew men were died as the Aquila went down off the Scottish west coast, and as late as the first week in August, a 16-year old was killed when his fishing vessel collided with a ferry off Berwickshire. The new device consists of a sensor box which constantly monitors the stability of the vessel and transmits the information to a screen placed in the vessel’s wheelhouse. If the sensor detects that stability is threatened, the crew are alerted by a red light and an audible warning, and can take action accordingly.
The device is named SeaWise monitor and is backed by the UK government agency that oversees the industry, and is being tested by the US National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety. According to Smith, the director of the Hook Marine engineering firm, only fishing vessels longer than 12 metres are required by British law to undergo stability checks before setting out to sea, and the dominating share of the Scottish fleet is smaller than that, where most of the accidents occur, as well.
