Failure to ensure that there were sufficient crew with qualifications on board contributed to an incident where a man lost his life when he went overboard a crab vessel off the Donegal coast early last year, according to the official inquiry.
The report by the Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) into the death of Madis Letsars (37), a father of two, says the vessel owner was “unaware” of which, if any, crew members held fishing or maritime qualifications.
The report was compiled into the incident which occurred when the 14.9m crab vessel, Séimí, was fishing about 70 miles north of Arranmore island, Co Donegal, on February 4th, 2023.
There are no manning regulations for fishing vessels under 15 m length overall and a code of practice provides that the safe manning of the vessel is the owner’s responsibility, the report notes.
It says “the owner or master of any Irish registered fishing vessel has an obligation to ensure that there are sufficient qualified crew onboard, having regard to the type and duration of the voyage undertaken”.
“This obligation was not observed by the owner of FV Séimi,”it says.
“Ensuring qualified crew were onboard was left to the skipper who was only able to produce a Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) safety training card for himself and one other crewmember,”it says.
The incident occurred on February 1st, 2023 after the vessel had sailed at 12.00 hrs, and had proceeded to sea to haul and then re-set 24 lines of 135 crab pots off the northwest coast.
The pots were hauled, and re-set as planned up until the night of Saturday February 4th, the report says, noting that a round voyage for the FV Séimi usually takes about four days depending on weather.
There were no gale warnings in operation at the time. A small craft warning was in place throughout the Saturday. The sea area forecast in the area that FV Seími intended to fish was for south to south-westerly winds force 5 or 6, reaching force 7 between Slyne Head and Malin Head, veering northwest and decreasing to force 2 to 4 by the end of that period.
There was a warning for a heavy swell on west and northwest Atlantic coasts for the Saturday.
At approximately 20.00 hrs on the night of Saturday February 4th, the last pot of the line left the deck, through the door and overboard.
As the last pot went overboard, a crew member got entangled in the lines and was dragged overboard through the stern door, it says.
A helicopter and lifeboat were tasked to attend. By the time the helicopter arrived the crew had stopped cardiopulmonary resuscitation for some time, as advised by MEDICO.
The sea was rough and the crew on the helicopter decided it was too risky to land a winchman on the small vessel and returned to base. The lifeboat was also stood down and returned to base, the report says.
The report says the casualty did his first trip with the vessel in December 2022 but then had some time off before joining the vessel again in January 2023.
He was on his fourth trip with the vessel at the time of the incident. His family says to the best of its knowledge he had no maritime qualifications or training.
In correspondence to the MCIB on its initial draft, BIM says it does not understand “how the investigator has concluded that the content of the BIM Safety Awareness course could be a causal factor of this incident, when only two of the five crew onboard, had completed BIM Basic Safety Training”.
BIM said that “there is no link between the incident and the content or quality of the BIM training”.
“ However, considering the report into the fishing vessel John B published in December 2023, we have commenced undertaking a review of the BIM Basic Safety Training course,”BIM said.
“ This review, once complete, will ensure that BIM [is] delivering a comprehensive, modern training programme, which continues to meet legislative requirements, highlights industry best practice,”BIM said.
The report includes a number of recommendations for the owner of the Séimi, and for the Minister for Transport.
This includes recommending that the minister should consider the introduction of an audit programme and a programme of unannounced inspections for fishing vessels less than 15 metres length overall to ensure compliance with the code of practice.
