WHAT IS NEW
Dr. Gabriela Sabau
I-5 Co-investigator
School of Science and the Environment, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Grenfell campus
Dr. Ratana Chuenpagdee
Module I Co-lead
Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's campus
Dr. Norm Catto
Co-investigator
Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's campus
Dr. Robert Briggs
Co-investigator
C-CORE, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's campus
Dr. Thomas Puestow
Co-investigator
C-CORE, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's campus
Dr. Roger White
Co-investigator
Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's campus
Dr. William Cheung
Canadian collaborator
NF-UBC Nereus Program, University of British Columbia
Dr. Prateep Nayak
Canadian collaborator
School of Environment, Enterprise and Development, University of Waterloo
Jack Daly
Master's student
Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's campus
Maria Yulmetova
Master's student
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's campus
Siva Prasad
Post-doctoral fellow
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's campus
MAY 2021 FEATURE
Marine Safety In Focus

Spring is an exciting time for fish harvesters. Some groundfish and shellfish harvesters are ramping up their effort following April start while others eagerly await opening dates in May and beyond. As many small boat harvesters are heading back onto the water, it is a good time to draw attention to important discussions and research on safety on the Atlantic coast. Fish harvesters face a range of occupational hardships and risks. Working conditions are highly varied, and often hazardous. Tied to the nature of work is the need for workers to sustain maritime industries and their benefits to coastal communities and broader Canadian society. All these concerns beg the question, what makes a fishery safe for fishers?
What makes a safe fishery? A safe fishery is one in which all feasible precautions are taken, risks are mitigates, and fishers feel like they can work safely in their environment. There are a range of hazards and risks to be addressed through governance that advances marine safety in a fishery. The environment alone is the ever-changing ocean the working surface is vessel in near constant motion, and the equipment can weigh tonnes. For these reasons and more, marine safety concerns can not be ignored, some concerns are unfeasible to deal with, for various reasons ranging from cost to space constraints. This still begs the question, however, are we doing enough to make the fishery safe?
Knowing what makes a fishery safe, however, does not answer any questions about what needs to be done to make a fishery safe in practice. Those questions can only be answered through experience and further research into the topic directly. For this reason, we have chosen to feature some recent work being done on marine safety in our Marine Safety Pop Up this month. These works and the question of what makes a safe fishery will help us, when the time comes, to Get Marine Safety Right.