Seafish Damage Control Box wins Safety at Sea International Award

24 June 2011

Seafish, the authority on seafood, last night won the training category at the Safety at Sea International Awards 2011 for the Damage Control Kit and accompanying seminar.  The awards ceremony was held on HMS Belfast and the award was presented by Sir Allan Massey, CEO of the Maritime & Coastguard Agency.

Keir Day, Theme Leader for Safety at Sea at Seafish said: "We are delighted to have won this prestigious award. I hope that winning will promote the Damage Control Kit and help save lives in the future."

The Damage Control Box for fishing vessels, including a two hour seminar on how to use the equipment, is currently being delivered to fishermen across the UK. The kits are currently free (one per vessel) thanks to funding from Seafish, the Maritime & Coastguard Agency and the Shipowners' Insurance Group.

Damage control is the emergency action that may be taken to reduce or limit danger to a vessel from flooding following failure of equipment or structural damage. In the fishing industry, 52% of vessel losses are caused by flooding and most of these are on vessels under 12m (MAIB, 2009).

The seminar teaches fishermen about damage control and how general maintenance of their vessel can prevent serious situations occurring. They are also taught what can be done should an incident occur and how to use the various items in the kit. The most important thing is that fishermen should add more items to the kit themselves to tailor it for their particular vessel.