IMO NEWS
FEATURE
•
Summer 2021
Pushing for fishing vessel safety F
ishing is one of the most hazardous professions in the world with a large number of occupational fatalities every year. Despite its perilous nature, an internationally
binding regime for the safety of fishing vessels and their crew does not exist – unlike for seafarers, who benefit from the safety provisions established by enforceable international treaties, such as the 1974 SOLAS Convention. Such treaties do not apply to fishing vessels, explicitly excluding them. Regrettably, the key international treaty applicable to commercial fishing vessels, the 2012 Cape Town Agreement, has not yet entered into force. There are therefore no globally mandatory requirements for the design, construction and equipment of fishing vessels, including life-saving, fire protection and radio-communications equipment to be carried on board. The journey to bringing a mandatory regulatory framework for fishing vessels into force began some four decades ago with the adoption of the Torremolinos International Convention for the Safety of Fishing Vessels in 1977. Due mainly to the complexity of its implementation, the Convention failed to attract the number of ratifications necessary for it to enter into force; and the same happened in 1993 when the Torremolinos Protocol relating to the Convention was adopted.
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The 2012 Cape Town Agreement, brought about after intensive discussions over a five-year period, presents the latest regulatory attempt to establish a mandatory regime for the safety of fishing vessels. The Agreement provides standards for the design, construction and equipment of fishing vessels and includes regulations designed to protect the safety of crews and observers, aiming at providing a level playing field for the industry. The 2012 Cape Town Agreement principally applies to fishing vessels of 24 meters in length and over, while providing flexibility for flag States to exempt certain vessels, as well as to ratify the Agreement first and implement certain provisions on a gradual basis (in phases) later on. It complements the 2007 International Labour Organization (ILO) Work in Fishing Convention and the 2009 Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Port State Measures Agreement, as well as IMO’s International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Fishing Vessel Personnel (STCW-F), 1995. The 2012 Cape Town Agreement replaces the 1977 Torremolinos Convention
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