PRS highlights small craft safety

摘要

Whilst most attention in the world of class and marine safety tends to be focused on safety of larger vessels such as tankers and bulk carriers, small craft safety is equally important, notes Polski Rejestr Statkow (PRS, the Polish Register of Shipping). PRS says it believes that the safety of smaller vessels also gives rise to concern, noting as it does that although casualties involving larger vessels tend to make headlines and those involving smaller craft do not. Figures produced by the IMO in the 1990s show that far higher numbers of lives are lost every year from smaller vessels. In the 1990s, says the PRS, 146 bulk carriers sank, with a loss of 600 lives; but, in the same period, some 24,000 people died in incidents involving the world's fishing fleet.