New training course will educate newcomers and established fishermen on safety at sea.
The Department of the Marine and Bord Iascaigh Mhara have launched a campaign to make training schemes for fishermen compulsory.
Safety at sea has not always been a priority for the Irish fishing industry and unfortunately recent years have seen many fishing disasters at sea.
Requirements for formal training qualifications for those who wish to go to sea have also not been widely encouraged, but all this is about to change.
The new BIM (Bord Iascaigh Mhara) Regional Fisheries Centre was opened this week in Castletownbere County Cork. It is part of a campaign by BIM and the Department of the Marine to provide training for experienced fishing crews as well as new entrants to the industry,
To underline the need for safety.
Each boat must now have a safety statement on board to comply with national safety regulations. Fishermen are now obliged to undertake formal training, but now they will not have to travel far to do so, says training manager Captain Bill Kavanagh, as this new centre is
Right on the doorstep of the largest whitefish port in Ireland.
The Castletownbere centre will provide training for fishing crews in the south and south-west, as well as the south-east.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 14 April 1999. The reporter is Tom MacSweeney.
