Fishing Vessel Stability Indicator Development Project

Project Details

Academic description

The UK fishing industry is a major source of livelihood for its people, and revenue for the government, with £483 million per year in economic output. However, it is marred by avoidable work related deaths. Overloading has been a common reason for the capsizing of fishing vessels (FV) and has led to deaths of many fishing vessel seafarers and sinking of entire boats.
To cite just a few, these include the sinkings of Heather- Anne, Nicola Faith, Purbeck Isle, Stella Maris, JMT, Nancy Glen and Joanna C, each of which was accompanied by loss of lives and / or property, and the use of extensive coast guard rescue services. The issue needs innovative solutions, since unlike merchant cargo ships which load cargo in port, FVs load all their catch at sea in a highly dynamic environment, with limited manpower and without any means of visually or remotely checking their draft in mid sea. We attempt to address this by installing freeboard sensors and alarms on FVs. If the fishing vessel had a freeboard sensor, it can give an alarm to the skipper as the vessel nears its overload limits. This warning can potentially prevent the boat from capsizing due to overloading. Our project will examine the practicability, reliability and dependability of installing such a fishing vessel freeboard detector on fishing vessels. We will install sensors on a model tug (as the proxy FV), and remotely measure the changing freeboard and resulting alarms in different sea states and catch loading conditions in the wave tank.
AcronymFISID
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date4/04/2331/07/23

Funding

  • Solent University

UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This project contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

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