The Australian Maritime Safety Authority recently announced its collaboration with the industry education, which aims to advance the safety of commercial fishing operations at the Far North Queensland’s remote areas.
In fact, AMSA along with Queensland Water Police and Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol conducted joint marine safety patrols in Torres Strait and the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Specifically, those patrols targeted targeted riverine and shoreline commercial fishing ahead of the 2020 Gulf Barramundi fishing season.
Moreover, the three collaborators inspected 30 fishing vessels across nine different crab and barramundi operations in the Mitchell, Holroyd and Love rivers, Weipa and Mapoon.
The inspections were in line with similar patrols back in April and August 2019, while began on 30 of January and lasted until 5 February.
Within the years, many of the operators had attended AMSA’s free safety management workshops in the areas around Queensland.
Those workshops are focused on the safety equipment needed for these operations, the importance of identifying the unique risks associated with them and providing mitigation strategies.
Combined with the regular on-water patrols, we’re starting to see a reduction in the number of safety breaches under the Marine Safety (Domestic Commercial Vessel) National Law Act – for these individual operations.
…said the AMSA Operations North Manager, Greg Witherall.
As Mr. Witherall further informed, between the two patrols back in 2019, one operator had 15 boats inspected and 195 deficiencies across their fleet.
Although when AMSA officers returned to the operator in January 2020, almost all of the deficiencies had been improved.
Concluding, those joint inspections will give a boost in the safety of riverine and shoreline fishing operations.
We all have a vested interest in making these operations safer and by collaborating with other agencies and educating industry, we can achieve that together.
… Greg Witherall concluded.