Improved offshore hazard awareness
We are working with offshore industries to improve awareness of offshore hazards through enhanced data sharing and mapping. Committed for the long term, we provide trusted fishing-friendly information that is delivering real impact through improved awareness and reduced risks at sea.
What was the industry challenge?
Fishing often shares the same sea space as other industries, including oil & gas, subsea cable and renewable energy. This presents unique challenges and can increase risks for fishers due to the size and scale of structures, as well as the nature of activities being undertaken. In the past, poor information and limited awareness of these surface and subsea structures led to numerous cases of lost fishing gear and dangerous situations resulting from trawl doors and nets becoming snagged. These structures have contributed to the capsize and loss of fishing vessels and, in some cases, have led to loss of life.
How did Seafish and its partners respond?
Our Kingfisher team, alongside partner organisations from the offshore industries, developed and continues to deliver a range of services to improve fishing awareness of offshore man-made hazards. These include FishSAFE (oil and gas awareness), KIS-ORCA (renewable energy and cables awareness) and the Kingfisher Bulletin (all industries). FishSAFE and KIS-ORCA provide trusted positional information for use on land and at sea, covering more than 16,000 offshore structures around the UK. In addition, the Kingfisher Bulletin has evolved into an advanced website and app-based alert system, delivering more than 500,000 alerts via email, SMS and app notifications over the last year.
What was the impact?
With our help, these services have improved fishing understanding of hazardous and complex offshore structures and activities around the UK. These free services have been delivered and continually updated by the Kingfisher team over many years, providing a trusted source of high-quality mapping information. As a result, skippers are better informed about challenging locations, more aware of offshore hazards, and better able to navigate and fish safely in the vicinity of man-made structures.
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