There are many lessons to be learned from the sinking of the fishing boat ‘Simshar’ tragedy which left three men and an 11-year old boy dead. Several investigations are going on and hopefully they will serve to come up with recommendations to address the shortcomings that caused this tragedy.
There are lessons to be learned by the fishermen themselves to try and do whatever they can not to land themselves in similar tragedies.
There are lessons to be learned by public authorities to ensure that there are effective facilities in place to help fishermen when they encounter problems out at sea. One failing that has already been identified and needs to be addressed immediately is the lack of coordination and synergy between the Armed Forces of Malta and the Department of Fisheries.
This department is equipped with the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) that tracks every fishing vessel in our territorial waters and transmits the satellite position in terms of latitude and longitude of each vessel which has VMS facilities installed on it. The Simshar fishing boat had such equipment on board but it did not help to save the fishermen when tragedy struck as the public officer in charge of operating the VMS was abroad on work duties. It was shocking to hear the Director of Fisheries say this in an interview with ‘One News’.
So during the crucial 48 hours from the time the VMS lost Simshar’s signal on Thursday 10 July, to the time when the authorities were alerted on Saturday, there was no monitoring of the VMS. The fishing boat disappeared from the VMS on Thursday 10 July 2008 at 20:12hrs, but the department was only made aware of the fishing boat’s disappearance after the family alerted the armed forces that the fishermen had not returned to the shore and were overdue.
In the interview with ‘One News’ the Fisheries’ Director explained that the department must contact the owner of the fishing vessel immediately when there is a problem in the VMS signal with the boat. This was not the case with the disappearance of the Simshar, because there was no one monitoring the system as the only public officer in charge was abroad on work duties. He said: “We were aware that there was a problem with Simshar when the wife [of one of the fishermen] was calling for help, not through the VMS. The wife said that they were due to return on Thursday, but they didn’t return.” When asked whether they became aware of the Simshar’s disappearance on Saturday, 48 hours later, he said: “Yes, in that period because the official [who monitors the VMS] was not in on Friday, thus we could not have known before.”
So the Department of Fisheries has the necessary equipment but does not have adequate manpower to operate it efficiently. It is also clear that there is no arrangement between the Department of Fisheries and the Armed Forces of Malta to use the VMS equipment together so that they can share effectively and efficiently the scarce technical and human resources that our small island state has.
I am informed that bigger and better resourced countries have a system in place where the Department of Fisheries and the Armed Forces operate jointly the VMS so that it can be used 24 hours a day, seven days a week. While the Department of Fisheries uses this equipment as an authority and a regulator of the fishing activity, the Armed Forces can use the data for search and rescue operations.
There is so much talk that we are becoming a smart island using electronic and computer equipment for better governance and more effective delivery of public services and yet no system has been put in place to coordinate the facilities of the Department of Fisheries and the Armed Forces of Malta. This shows very poor political leadership and lack of vision and the party in government has to answer for this serious failing. Practical steps must be taken and without any delay to coordinate and share the technical and human resources of these two public entities so that as much as possible we will avoid tragedies like that of ‘Simshar’ and prevent the painful loss of human life.