Pre-Trip Vessel Safety Checklist Workshop Report
October 08, 2019
Ensuring a safety culture is critical to the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Fisheries Sampling Branch mission.
That was reflected in a workshop organized by the branch in August 2019 to evaluate the process of completing the required observer’s pre-trip vessel safety checklist. The two dozen people who attended the workshop had a combined 440 years of experience working with fishery observer programs and/or commercial fishing vessels. This report details their discussions and actions items intended to make the checks more efficient, while also being an effective tool to improve safety at sea.