Fishing vessels safety procedures and crew familiarization

RDIMS No .: 20162422
Date (Y-M-D) : 2024-05-21

We issue Ship Safety Bulletins for the marine community. Visit our Website at www.tc.gc.ca/ssb-bsn to view existing bulletins and to sign up to receive e-mail notices of new ones.

Scope

This bulletin is for masters and authorized representatives of Canadian fishing vessels.

Purpose

This bulletin is to remind the authorized representatives of fishing vessels of their responsibilities for developing emergency procedures and for training crew.

What you need to know

The Transportation Safety Board has recently recommended that Transport Canada increase oversight of required safety procedures, and we are acting on that recommendation.

Section 3.16 of the Fishing Vessel Safety Regulations require that you develop written safety procedures for all specified safety aspects of your fishing vessel’s operation, configuration and equipment. By law, you must keep a hard copy of these safety procedures on board.

Need help developing written procedures?

Transport Canada has also developed a guide and some templates that you can use. You can also contact a fishing organization to see if they have a template available for use. When using generic templates, you must ensure they can be adjusted so they are relevant to the type of operations you conduct, the configuration of your vessel, and to the equipment found on board.

A good way to make sure your procedures cover everything is to hold a safety workshop with your crew to review and improve the procedures.

As set out in section 205 of the Marine Personnel Regulations, you have the obligation to make sure that anyone hired to work on board your vessel has completed their minimum marine emergency training. You must ensure that any person assigned a function on your vessel receives the on-board familiarization and safety training set out in section 4 of TP 4957 - Marine Emergency Duty training courses, before they start to work on board the vessel.

Everyone working on board must also be able to identify the written safety procedures which have been implemented on board, and demonstrate they are familiar with them.

The crew must learn and practice the skills needed to complete these procedures through recommended monthly drills, where they practice:

using the safety equipment on board, such as:
- communications equipment (and requesting a med-evac)
- donning lifejackets and immersion suits (these must also fit all members of the crew)
carrying out procedures, such as:
- abandon ship
- fire
- flooding
- person falling overboard (MOB)
- communication
- any specific emergency procedures based on your work or vessel (such as lifting overhead, slippery decks, night operations, etc.)

You must keep records of these drills on board and be able to show them during an inspection.

If an inspector finds that your procedures are inadequate, or your crew is not well-versed in them, they will issue your vessel a deficiency notice. You will be required to resolve the notice before the vessel can depart, or a vessel detention may be issued.

Don’t take any risks.Your life and the lives of your crew are at stake.