The preliminary report, commissioned by Dr Austin Gatt as Minister for Information, Transport and Communication (MITC), in terms of the Merchant Shipping Act, was submitted by Dr Anne Fenech on 26 June, 11 months after the tragedy occurred on 11 July 2008.

The Magisterial Inquiry is still pending.

This preliminary report highlights many discrepancies as to what has been reported now and what was said in July and August 2008 and very clearly reported by the media. In my two-page feature titled “The aftermath of the Simshar tragedy – Fatal accidents and loss of life on board fishing vessels” published in The Malta Independent on Sunday on Sunday 10 August 2008, I highlighted all statements that were made not only in the published media but also verbally on certain TV programmes.

In my piece, I had made various recommendations, which seem to have been mirrored in the preliminary enquiry’s report. I also highlighted the “cavalier” attitude (to borrow a term from Dr Fenech’s report) that fishermen adopt with regard to their work when I said: “The European Agency for the Safety and Health at Work, through FONDS, the organisation that represents the interest of those involved in the fishing sector, decided to launch campaigns to improve the working conditions and to reduce the number of accidents over time. The objective of the project was to encourage all ship owners and crew to pay more attention to safety in all its aspects. The intention was also to organise the project in consultation with the supervisory authorities and the social partners to achieve broad dissemination of information and communication about the project.

“The campaign by FONDS was carried out between 1999 and 2001, and covered about 125 fishing boats belonging to various companies in Europe. This involved around 600 fishermen employed by fishing companies that employed fewer than 20 employees, most of which only employed six or seven in the same way as typical Maltese fishing companies.

“The campaign was aimed at raising the awareness of the sector of the dangers and risks on board and to reduce the number of accidents on board by motivating people to engage in safe behaviour and to motivate owners to invest in safe equipment and techniques and the crews to be attentive to unsafe situations and acts.

“Naturally, this campaign faced various problems and challenges, some coming from the fishermen themselves such as the reasoning that the specific character of the fishing sector does not easily lend itself to the development of a good safety culture. The sector has the reputation of being hard and that accidents are simply a normal phenomenon. Expressions such as ‘a fishing boat’ is no place for weaklings and ‘in fishing, one has to be able to take it’ are still common in most EU fishing communities. In this sense the raising of ‘reluctant consciousness’ had to be taken into account from the outset in the introduction of safety measures. This, as one could see from recent fatal accidents, is still a battle that has not yet been won. One cannot adopt a reluctant consciousness to matters of safety especially if one is responsible for the safety of others.”

I also highlighted the local authorities’ failure to introduce and enforce safety legislation with respect to fishermen: “The authorities on their part are to provide the necessary enforcement of legislation and appoint professionally qualified, trained and experienced inspectors to carry out surveys, tests and inspections and to issue relevant safety certificates on an annual basis to fishing boats. This aspect is very doubtful in Malta and I am sure that it does not exist. Hence the term, ‘raising of reluctant consciousness’ of safety factors and requirements. We are all conscious of the requirements and needs but we are reluctant to adopt them or to enforce them.”

The need-to-know aspects for fishermen in order to work safely on board were also itemised as follows:

“All crew members on board a fishing vessel should be trained and competent, with everyone involved having clear roles and responsibilities relating to health and safety, whether boat owner, captain/skipper, or worker. Every person on board should know what to do in case of emergency.

“Fishermen should be sufficiently trained in the following areas:

• Personal survival techniques;

• Operation and use of emergency communication equipment;

• Hi Line transfer (helicopter rescue);

• Fire prevention and fire fighting;

• Emergency procedures;

• First aid;

• Prevention of marine pollution;

• Prevention of fishing accidents.”

Dr Fenech’s preliminary report is very welcome and one would hope at this stage that the relevant authorities will heed all recommendations made. The magisterial inquiry, which is still pending, would do worse than to heed advice given in her report and which had been highlighted in very clear terms in my article of 10 August last year.

The raising of “reluctant consciousness” in Malta is a very hard and difficult job indeed.

Fishing remains a very dangerous industry, not only because the fishermen themselves are reluctant to abide by certain rules, but also because the authorities cannot seem to understand that legislation has to be enforced and made user friendly and not just ratified to comply with EU requirements.

Reno Spiteri

Marine and industrial consultant