COMMERCIAL FISHING: THE MOST DANGEROUS PEACETIME OCCUPATION

In 2021 Southampton engineers and public policy professionals were instrumental in a change to the UK fishing vessel safety policy intended to reduce the high rate of fatalities in the fishing industry, which is approximately 100 times higher than that of the UK general workforce.

“The new Code of Practice for the Safety of Small Fishing Vessels came into force on 6th September 2021, and with regard to vessel stability and freeboard (distance between the deck and the waterline), key recommendations included all existing vessels under 15 metres length to be marked using the Wolfson Method or assessed by use of another acceptable method,” explained Dr Matteo Scarponi, Senior Research Engineer in the Wolfson Unit

The Wolfson Unit for Marine Technology and Industrial Aerodynamics (WUMTIA) provides expert naval architectural consultancy services to vessel designers, yacht owners and regulatory bodies worldwide. This commercial consultancy outfit within the University specialises in power craft and sailing yachts, experimental hydrodynamic and aerodynamic testing, computation fluid dynamics and marine design software.

“The Wolfson Method is so named because it was originally devised in 2006 by Barry Deakin, a Wolfson Unit engineer. The method enables small-scale fishers to assess whether their own vessels are at risk of capsizing in real operating conditions and to mitigate that risk,” said Matteo. “Funds awarded by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation and the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute (SMMI) enabled us to conduct research and produce evidence against the use of the roll period test (a simplified stability test for small craft) for appraising the stability of typical UK fishing vessels and advocated the use of the Wolfson Method in conjunction with other techniques such as the heel test.”

The Wolfson team took their research to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and fishing industry stakeholders with the help of Dr Wassim Dbouk, a marine and maritime policy Research Fellow with Public Policy|Southampton (PPS)

“We made our evidence-based recommendations which ultimately resulted in the policy change and enabled the redraft of Marine Guidance Note 503(F) which I contributed to,” explained Matteo. “Our ability within the Unit to undertake the physical testing needed and the analysis required, coupled with our access to policy experts from across the University put us in a unique and highly qualified position to affect this safety guidance change.”