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Displaying items by tag: MFV Suzanne

In the wake of the Marine Casualty Investigation Board report involving fire onboard the fishing vessel “MFV Suzanne II”, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport has reminded vessel owners of their legal obligations when operating a vessel.

The reminder comes in the form of Marine Notice No. 18 of 2020,  to all 'Fishing Vessel Owners/Operators, Skippers, Fishers, and Seafarers' and follows an Incident involving the Fire and Total Loss of a Fishing Vessel in 2019. 

As Afloat reported in February, three fishing crew were saved by EPIRB after a fire alarm failed on the MFV Suzanne II in 2019.

Three crew on board the MFV Suzanne II had a fortunate escape, as their emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) activated, and gave their latitude and longitude.

The Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) inquiry records that the three crew had set out from Arklow, Co Wicklow, in the early hours of May 2nd last year, and were working about 30 nautical miles east of the fishing port.

Weather conditions were good, and the three had taken a break when one of the crew noticed smoke coming from the engine room.

The 17-metre French-built timber vessel with aluminium shelter deck was built as a trawler but fitted with a pot hauler in 2018. The vessel had been surveyed and certified for fishing in July 2018.

The Skipper of every Fishing Vessel has overall responsibility for ensuring his/her crew know the location of firefighting equipment on the vessel and are instructed, trained and drilled in the use of such equipment, the notice says.

Download Marine Notice No. 18 of 2020 below.

Published in Marine Warning

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.