By Darren Guard, Director, Guard Safety and Darryn Shaw, Deepwater Manager, Sanford

Guest editors Darren Guard and Darryn Shaw share the safety developments they’re seeing in the seafood industry, and why competition needs to be left at the door.

There is never an easy time to write about safety – it can bring up painful memories for those of us in the seafood business who have had the misfortune to lose someone. As an industry, we want to do everything we possibly can to avoid these sorts of heartbreaking situations. When you have been in the industry long enough you seem to be unable to escape the unfortunate experiences of having to deal with the aftermath of serious or fatal incidents (which the two authors and many others have). 

We can tell you this affects everybody involved and this is our motivation, along with everybody we know in the industry, to turn this around. Yes, we work in a hostile environment at times, but nobody wants hurt, suffering or worse – that old-school badge of fishing is now rightly long past (ie, you’re not a real fisherman unless you have lost a finger or two).

For the reasons above, the two of us are pleased to be seeing a real shift in our industry. It’s not just about taking safety more seriously – every business we know, big or small, takes safety seriously. They all understand how big the impact of a death or injury can be. What we’re seeing that’s new is a fresh spirit of cooperation. 

We’re all pretty competitive in seafood. But when it comes to an area like safety, competition is not in the game, on the field or even in the stadium: it is left at the door. This is an area where working together can produce a better result and make the difference we all seek.

We saw that in action at our last NZ Fishing Health and Safety Forum in Nelson. The Forum is a ten-year-old organisation whose members are a mix of deepwater and inshore fishing organisations.   

The Nelson meeting in September was a “Contractor Convention” – bringing those who support our industry together to share health and safety ideas, learning and opportunities. It was the second time all the members have been in the same room together to talk and listen. 

The event was opened by Nelson Mayor Nick Smith, who has his own experiences of health and safety as a director of his family business, Smith Cranes.

Speakers from Maritime New Zealand (MNZ), Dawson & Associates, Sealord, Talley’s, Sanford, Guard Safety and Anchor Engineering shared their experiences in a totally open way.

The Forum fully understands the importance of looking after our people; it has been proactively involved in key health, safety, and wellbeing initiatives such as MarineSAFE, FirstMate and the creation of several health and safety guidelines for the sector that can be found online at www.marinesafe.nz/resources.

We want to encourage more industry and cross stakeholder collaboration, just like we’re seeing in the Forum. We are working with lead agencies, such as MNZ, to help move everyone forward in a combined effort. 

While collaboration is the glue that creates the strength, it is also about personal responsibility – looking after yourself and those around you too. All the systems in the world are not going to make people safe in their own right. We want everybody to have the strength and courage to speak up, and the curiosity to look at what is happening around them and ask, "Is that safe?" How much better can it be if we learn from each other and help each other to prevent harm across the industry.