Maritime and Coastguard Agency

  HM Coastguard’s Search and Rescue (SAR) helicopter team at Stornoway in the Western Isles completed their 1,000th tasking since 2013, with the recovery of a group of people stuck on coastal rocks in the Highlands. Captain Dan Lewis, senior first officer Marc Grant, winch operator James Lyne and winchman Andy Walker were called to the location near Ardmair, north of Ullapool at 12:05pm, on August 25, after three people who had alighted from their boat became stranded. After being deployed to assess the situation, the winchman lifted one person to the safety of the beach – while the remaining two people were able to return to their vessel and then to safety. HM Coastguard’s UK Search and Rescue helicopter service, operated by Bristow Helicopters, is in its fifth anniversary year. Bristow was awarded the 10-year contract by the Department for Transport in March 2013. One of the base’s most notable taskings saw the crew support the rescue of an elderly man who was clinging onto a cliff e

Proposals designed to make the fishing industry safer are going out to the industry for consultation. Have your say here: Gov.uk    The proposed Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) Code of Practice for Small Fishing Vessels (less than 15 metres length overall) includes a requirement for fishing boats to be inspected both in and out of the water every five years. A fishing boat is only currently required to be inspected in the water when it first joins the Register, and after that inspected either in or out of the water once every five years. This is part of ongoing work by the MCA and its partners in the Fishing Industry Safety Group to help reduce the number of deaths in the industry. Between 2012-2019 there were 45 fishing fatalities which translates to a figure of 54 fishermen in every 100,000 losing their lives at work. To put it in perspective, the national average across all sectors is 0.5 fatalities per 100,000. There are about 12,000 fishermen and 5,700 fishing v

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency has detained a further UK flagged fishing vessel following its failure to get its mandatory intermediate survey done in time. Owners of the scallop dredger, Zara Annabel, have been served with the notice to ensure the vessel makes for the nearest suitable port and to notify the crew that its UK Fishing Vessel Certificate is no longer valid. It brings to a total of six the number of UK flagged fishing vessels detained by the MCA over the past two weeks after being found to be non-compliant with multiple areas of legislation under the Merchant Shipping Act. The Olivia Jean was detained by MCA surveyors at Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire on 31 July. Earlier in the same week (Monday 27 July), Camm Bounteous was detained in Brixham and Noordzee was also detained at the same location on Tuesday (28 July). During the previous week, two ships Camm Courageous and Sea Lady were also found to be in breach of legislation and both detained at Shoreham. Those five ves