Safety at Sea Training Programme Offers Skills Aligned with International Best Practices

Participants in the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) Safety at Sea Training Programme are benefiting from skills aligned with international best practices.

The training, administered through the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU), was adopted from the International Maritime Organization’s International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW).

One of the Facilitators in the Programme, Kyle Shaw, said the training is also used for both cruise and commercial ships, and adapted for fisher folk training.

“It has been significantly modified compared to the original training over the years and it is done in accordance with the training standard for fisher folks. Training focuses on getting seafarers to be able to survive at sea in case of emergencies. It doesn’t focus on their regular day-to-day fishing skill sets,” Mr. Shaw noted.

“We show them how to find their location if they’re in distress as well as basic skills, which some persons might take for granted. For example, having a shore person – somebody ashore that you communicate with and having more than one communication source in case one fails,” he added.

Mr. Shaw, who is Head of the CMU’s Department of Professional Training and Certification in the Faculty of Marine and Nautical Studies, was speaking at a JIS Think Tank, held at the agency’s Television Department, 5-9 South Odeon Avenue, in Kingston, on September 23.

He pointed out that many fishers go to sea with cell phones only, but this is insufficient.

“One of the things that we did in the training is to give them, VHF readers, which are NFA sponsored, and they could learn how to communicate with ships passing by,” Mr. Shaw said.

“We also show them how to do the international distress signals, because some persons will wave when they see a ship passing. But the ships are really high and they should be doing something else, which is saying, I’m in distress. We also teach them how to do a SOS and mayday calls,” he said.

The Safety at Sea Training Programme targets fisher folk across the island to equip them with the necessary skills to be safe while out at sea.

Free to fishers licensed with the NFA, the programme has two components – the safety at sea training administered by the CMU; and safe diving practices administered by the University of the West Indies (UWI) Marine Lab.

For more information, persons can call the National Fisheries Authority at (876) 948-9014.