Fishermen Successfully Complete MOA training

Twenty-four fishermen from the whitefish vessels Boy John and Rosebloom successfully completed Man Overboard Awareness (MOA) training at Survivex in Aberdeen last week.

The owners of the vessels specifically wanted to do the training as a crew and with fantastic support from the RNLI, Seafish and Survivex, the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) was able to facilitate it for them.

Industry is very grateful for the funding pot used for these events from the MCA and Trinity House and believes that there is no equivalent training that has such an impact.

SFF safety officer Derek Cardno said: “The idea of doing the training as a crew was fantastic, especially when witnessing how the fishermen helped each other in the pool exercises. It certainly hit home for the crews as they watched their fellow crewmates struggle in the water with and without a PFD.

“The message at these courses is always very focused on the correct use of a PFD but also the limitations of this vital lifesaving kit. Fishermen can experience for themselves the difficulty of being in the water in a controlled environmental pool which hopefully leaves them with the thought that staying on the boat is the best.

“With the success of doing this training experience as a crew, we would like to encourage vessel owners to follow a similar model.

“If vessel owners would like to do similar training with their own crew we would encourage them to get in contact. Having successfully run a course with 24 fishermen, this also gives us the opportunity to facilitate more than one crew on the course to help keep costs down.”