The Australian Maritime Safety Authority announced a collaboration with the Queensland Police Service and Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol to raise awareness on marine safety, via a safety campaign which will promote education and regulations concerning commercial dory fishing operations.
Specifically, the campaign aims to boost and improve maritime safety in coastal communities across Queensland, a campaign which will go national in the next 12 months. Also, the campaign will focus on education and national law requirements which apply to commercial dory fishing operations.
The campaign was launched due to the increased number of serious incidents in the last years, highlighting the lack of safety measures in fishing operations.
AMSA General Manager of Operations, Allan Schwartz stated that
We know that some—not all—dory fishing operations are not adequately considering the safety of their people out on the water.
He added that lack of safety measures equals to a poor safety culture that leads to risks and is not acceptable from a community expectation and regulatory perspective.
Mr Schwartz commented that is an often phenomenon of fishers not having access to two-way communication devices, such as radios and satellite phones. This means that in the possibility of an emergency, the fishers have no way of alerting their mates of a danger. Consequently, mates who could come to their aid much faster than authorities who are potentially hours away
Concluding, the campaign aims to make dory fishing operations much safer.
