Making it Happen

Safety doesn’t just happen – having a safe boat and being a safe fisherman is a conscious decision. FishSAFE has been set up to provide support and advice about how to be safe and be profitable at the same time.

Implementing the Guidelines and Being a FishSAFE Boat (for Small Fishing Boats)

The Safety Guidelines for Small Commercial Fishing Vessels were developed by fishermen, for fishermen. They take a “best practice” approach to common safety issues that affect all small fishing boats, and address the hazards of each specific fishing operation.

Simply having the Guidelines on board your boat doesn’t make you safe and also doesn’t meet your legal obligations. The Guidelines are designed to be downloaded and then customised to your particular operation – delete the bits that aren’t relevant and add things that are. Use the Guidelines as a starting point for your own hazard management system.

The Seafood Industry Training Organisation (SITO) offers FREE training in Injury Prevention. These are one-day workshops, held in a port near you, will show owners and skippers how to customise the Guidelines to their operation. There will also be a support person (mentor) based in your area who will be available free of charge to help you implement the Guidelines on your boat after the workshop. Attending the workshops and implementing the Guidelines on board your boat means you are eligible to apply for a 10% reduction in your current ACC levy.

The following is a list of the names of the current mentors and the areas that they are covering. If you need to contact a mentor in your area please email training@fishsafe.org.nz for further details.

More mentors, including those working specifically for the aquaculture sector, will be available shortly and their names will be added to the list at that time.

FishSAFE Workshop Dates 2007

For further information on the Guidelines and the training in your area, email Simon Reid on training@fishsafe.org.nz.