Guidelines for Health and Safety on Board Small Fishing Boats

!   Action points

• Lighting should be fit for purpose.
• Change light bulbs, lamps and tubes as soon as they extinguish!
• Keep diffusers and reflectors on light fittings clean.
• Replace switches, diffusers and reflectors if they get damaged.
• Regularly test emergency lighting.
• Regularly check the battery supplying the emergency lighting. Get the local battery shop to check them regularly.
• Lighting should allow people to move around the vessel with ease and do their work safely. In the accommodation, lighting should allow people to read.

Night lighting at sea

At night, night-vision is of great importance to crew who are moving around on deck or on watch in the bridge.

If you are surrounded by white light your night-vision is seriously impaired!

Follow these rules to improve night vision:

• Keep white lighting at sea down to the minimum. You will have no chance of spotting an object ahead of you on a dark night if you are surrounded by bright white light.
• In the bridge of any vessel night lighting (blue or red) should be used to work with logs and charts.
• Do not use white deck lighting forward of the bridge.