Fishing Vessel Collision Risk: Watchkeeping Essentials

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Category: Pesca

Published on Wednesday, 20 May 2026 06:18

Written by Administrator2

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From fishing gear to failing lights — the hazards officers overlook

The officer on watch saw the target on radar. Fishing vessel, slow-moving, bearing remained constant. CPA was less than half a mile. She altered course to starboard. The fishing vessel did not respond. It held its course and speed. The two vessels passed at 200 metres. Nobody was injured. Nobody was surprised on the fishing vessel — they had not been watching their radar, they had not heard the VHF, and they had not seen the alteration because they were watching the hauling gear. This is not an unusual event in fishing grounds. It is the normal operating condition. Understanding it — not just knowing the COLREGS — is what keeps a watch officer alive in fishing waters.

TL;DR — WHAT EVERY WATCHKEEPER MUST KNOW BEFORE ENTERING FISHING GROUNDS

• Fishing vessels may not be keeping a proper watch — they are legally required to; in practice, the people on deck during active fishing operations are entirely focused on the gear
• The vessel is not the hazard — the gear is; gear extends hundreds of metres from the vessel and has no lights, no radar reflector and no positional data on any chart or AIS feed
• COLREGS lights are required; COLREGS lights are often defective or obscured — plan for non-compliant lighting; use dayshapes to assess fishing method when visible
• AIS alone will not tell you where the gear is — a stationary AIS target on the chart could mean stopped with active gear trailing in any direction
• Your radar is useful; their radar may not be — fishing vessels in active operations frequently have crew on deck who do not check the bridge radar between hauls
• The share system creates economic pressure to stay on the grounds regardless of traffic — fatigue and financial motivation are both factors in the watchkeeping behaviour you will encounter

The numbers to know:
• Trawl wire length: 200 to 800 m each side
• Longlines: up to 80 km of mainline with buoys every 1 to 2 km
• Purse seine: 400 to 2000 m diameter deployment around a fish school
• CPA minimum in fishing grounds: company policy varies — 1 mile is a common minimum; 2 miles preferable during active gear operations
• Call on VHF: channel 16 first; move to working channel only by arrangement

WHY THE FISHING VESSEL IS NOT KEEPING A PROPER WATCH

No one on the fishing vessel bridge intends to be in collision. The problem is not attitude — it is operational priority and the economics of fishing. Understanding this makes the outcome predictable and therefore manageable from the watch officer's side.

The share system and its consequences

Most fishing vessels operate on a share system: the crew receives a percentage of the catch value, not a fixed wage. A day's failure to catch is not just a bad day at work — it is a day without income. This structure creates intense pressure to remain in productive grounds, to continue fishing in marginal weather, to shorten breaks and to maximise the time gear is in the water. The watchkeeper on the bridge of a trawler during hauling is not ignoring the radar because he is careless — he may be the only person on board not already committed to the physical work on deck, and the economic consequence of missing a set is immediate and personal.

! Important: The share system is not a reason to excuse poor watchkeeping on fishing vessels — it is an explanation for a systematic pattern that the watch officer of a passing vessel must account for in passage planning and collision avoidance. Knowing the likely behaviour of the target vessel is the starting point for effective watchkeeping, not the end point for sympathy.

Fatigue in the fishing sector

Commercial fishing has the highest occupational fatality rate per capita of any major industry sector in most countries. Fatigue is a leading contributing factor. Vessels may fish continuously for 24 to 48 hours during periods of good weather after extended periods of non-fishing in port. Crew rotation on smaller vessels is minimal — the same people who fished all night are the people available for the watch after a short break.

A fishing vessel you encounter at 0200 after a passage through the grounds may have crew who have been working for 18 hours. The person glancing at the radar between hauling tasks is not performing a lookout function — they are performing a crisis check when they remember to.

Qualification requirements — the regulatory reality

Commercial fishing vessel certification requirements vary significantly between flag states. Masters of smaller fishing vessels in many national fleets hold national certificates that do not require STCW-level radar plotting, watch management or COLREGS competency at the depth expected of commercial ship officers. The regulatory minimum watchkeeping standard and the practical watchkeeping standard in the fishing sector are closer together than in any other maritime sector — and both may be well below what a watch officer on a merchant vessel assumes from a legal obligation standpoint.

THE GEAR IS THE REAL HAZARD — NOT THE VESSEL

A fishing vessel proceeding slowly through fishing grounds with gear deployed is not primarily a collision hazard in itself. In most cases, the vessel's slow speed and small size means that even a close-quarters situation with the vessel can be resolved by a modest alteration. What cannot be resolved by a close-quarters alteration is running over or into the gear — the net, the wire, the longline — because by the time you see the gear (if you see it at all), there may be no room to avoid it.

Why gear is invisible to most detection methods

• Trawl nets are submerged — no surface reflection, no radar echo from the net body
• Otter doors and trawl wires may produce occasional radar returns but are intermittent and unreliable
• Longline buoys produce a small radar echo in good conditions — in a confused sea surface, they disappear into clutter
• Purse seine floats may be visible on radar at close range but the full net circle cannot be seen
• Gill net markers are small and unreflective; the nets themselves are underwater and invisible

What happens when gear is caught

Entanglement in trawl wire or longline applies immediate tension forces to the ship's hull, rudder and propeller. Propeller entanglement in net material can immobilize the vessel in seconds. Longline hook sets may catch on hull appendages and trail hundreds of metres of line and hooks alongside or astern. These are not theoretical hazards — they are common enough that some ferry and coastal cargo operators in fishing-intensive regions carry emergency wire cutters at the stern and conduct routine wire-in-propeller drills.

FISHING GEAR TYPE BY TYPE — WHAT IT IS AND WHERE IT EXTENDS

? Did you know? In some well-established fishing grounds — parts of the North Sea, sections of the Norwegian coast, the Grand Banks approaches — longline buoys are present in such density that on radar the entire area appears cluttered. Radar gain reduction in this area removes the buoy returns along with sea clutter — a navigational trade-off that must be actively managed, not resolved by one setting.

COLREGS LIGHTS — WHAT THE LAW REQUIRES AND WHAT YOU WILL SEE

COLREGS Part C defines specific light configurations for vessels engaged in fishing. These lights are well-documented, regularly examined and expected by a qualified watch officer. They are also the lights you will most often find absent, obscured, defective or incorrectly substituted on actual fishing vessels.

What the lights require

Vessels trawling: Two vertical lights — green over white — visible through 225 degrees. White steaming light visible astern if making way. Additionally, when trawling, a vessel making way shows the green over white plus normal sidelights and sternlight.

Vessels fishing other than trawling (longlining, gill-netting, seining): Two vertical lights — red over white. Where gear extends more than 150 m in any direction, an additional white light in the direction of the gear.

The practical reality: Night-time fishing vessel lighting in working grounds frequently includes: a single white steaming light without the required configuration; white deck lights from processing operations that obscure the required signal lights; a working red-over-white pair with one light failed; no sidelights due to damage or bulb failure; and cases where a deck floodlight shining down into the net has been configured at a height and angle that obscures the masthead signal lights from any useful bearing.

! Important: When approaching a vessel in fishing grounds at night and the lights do not match a standard COLREGS configuration, this is not an unusual situation — it is the expected situation. The correct response is to treat the vessel as fishing regardless of what lights are visible, increase your CPA target, and call on VHF 16 if the situation requires clarification. Do not wait to resolve the lighting ambiguity before altering — alter first on the side of caution.

RADAR IN FISHING GROUNDS — SETTINGS THAT ACTUALLY WORK

Standard radar settings optimised for clear-weather collision avoidance are not the right settings for fishing grounds. In fishing grounds, the targets you most need to see are small, slow, partially radar-transparent (buoys and small vessels) and may be surrounded by sea clutter from the wave action that fishing grounds often generate. Managing these settings requires active adjustment, not a single preset that covers all conditions.

Gain and sea clutter controls

Increasing gain to detect small targets also increases returns from the sea surface — making it harder to distinguish vessel echoes from wave echoes. The correct approach is to set gain to the minimum required to see the target and then manage the threshold actively as conditions change. Anti-clutter sea (STC) suppresses returns from nearby sea surface but progressively reduces the sensitivity for genuine targets at the ranges where it operates.

In fishing grounds at night: increase range scale to give early warning of gear field extent; reduce to a close range periodically to confirm CPA with the nearest vessels; do not rely on a single range scale throughout a transit of a fishing area.

Trail length and vector settings

A long trail on a radar plot visually identifies slow-moving targets against stationary ones. Set trail length to 3 to 6 minutes to distinguish fishing vessels making negligible way (deploying gear) from those making way (transiting or towing). Relative vectors show what the target is doing relative to your vessel; true vectors show what the target is doing relative to the ground. Both have uses in fishing grounds — switch between them to build the full picture.

Target acquisition and the limits of ARPA in fishing grounds

ARPA automatic target acquisition in a dense fishing area will attempt to track every detectable buoy and vessel — potentially generating dozens of tracked targets simultaneously. In this condition, the watch officer cannot realistically monitor all tracked targets with equal attention. Manual selection of the highest-priority targets (those with smallest CPA or most uncertain aspect) and assignment of guard zones provides more effective watchkeeping than attempting to track everything.

VHF IN FISHING GROUNDS — WHEN TO CALL AND WHAT TO EXPECT

VHF contact with fishing vessels is possible and often productive. It is not guaranteed. Managing VHF communication in fishing grounds requires realistic expectations and a structured approach.

When VHF contact is productive

Early contact — before the situation becomes close-quarters — gives the fishing vessel time to respond and gives you time to receive a response and act on it. A brief, clear call on channel 16 identifying your vessel, your position relative to theirs, your intended course and a request for confirmation of their gear extent takes 30 seconds and can resolve most situations before they require a significant course alteration.

When VHF contact is not productive

If there is no response after two calls on channel 16, assume the vessel is not monitoring VHF and take the full collision avoidance action independently. Do not delay a required course alteration because VHF contact has not been achieved. VHF communication is a supplement to collision avoidance, not a substitute for it. Rule 8 of COLREGS requires action at an early stage — that early stage may arrive before VHF contact is established.

✓ Tip: In known fishing areas, monitor both channel 16 and the local working channel if this is established from pilot station or voyage research. Fishing vessels communicating with each other, with their company or with a coast station will use a working channel — you may hear information about gear, active areas and weather that is relevant to your passage even without calling anyone directly.

BRIDGE WATCHKEEPING CHECKLIST FOR FISHING VESSEL AREAS

Before entering the fishing ground:
► Obtain the best available position information on known active fishing grounds from pilot station, port authority, sailing directions or recent voyage reports
► Check charts for known gear areas, prohibited anchoring zones and areas of concentrated fishing activity
► Set radar appropriately: sufficient gain, sea clutter reduced, trails on, multiple ranges active
► Confirm current CPA alarm settings — 1 mile minimum is standard; consider 2 miles in known dense gear areas
► Inform the officer relieving the watch of the expected fishing activity and the specific hazards ahead
► Reduce speed if transit timing and sea conditions permit — lower speed extends reaction time and reduces the effect of potential gear entanglement

During transit of the fishing ground:
► Maintain full visual lookout — supplement radar with binocular watch at night, particularly for buoy lights
► Identify each fishing vessel's likely gear type from lights, dayshapes, and behaviour before committing to a passing side
► Do not pass between a pair-trawling pair — the net is in the water between them regardless of how far apart they appear
► Log all significant radar targets, alterations made, VHF communications and any gear fields noted
► Call the master if CPA with any target approaches 1 mile without resolution or if the density of targets requires two-person watchkeeping

After clearing the fishing ground:
► Complete voyage log entries for the transit
► Note any gear field positions, unusual lighting, or operational patterns observed that could assist the next passage through the same area
► Reset radar to standard approach settings

CPA AND SAFE PASSING DISTANCE IN FISHING GROUNDS

! Important: The CPA values above are guidance, not COLREGS minima. COLREGS requires action at an early stage — a formal close-quarters situation starts long before 1 mile CPA in any vessel category. These distances reflect the additional clearance needed to account for invisible gear and unpredictable vessel behaviour in fishing grounds, above and beyond normal collision risk management.

FAQ — WHAT OFFICERS ACTUALLY ASK ABOUT FISHING VESSEL ENCOUNTERS

Q: A fishing vessel is constrained by its gear under COLREGS Rule 3(g). Does this mean I always give way to it?
A: A vessel constrained by its gear is not automatically the stand-on vessel in every situation. Constrained-by-gear status affects how other vessels must pass, but all vessels retain the obligation under Rule 8 to take early and substantial action to avoid collision when required. If the fishing vessel also has a duty to maintain proper lookout under Rule 5 and fails to do so, this does not transfer all responsibility to the give-way vessel.

Q: If there is no AIS signal from a fishing vessel, does that mean it is not there?
A: No. AIS is not required on all fishing vessels. Under SOLAS, AIS is mandatory for vessels of 300 GT and above on international voyages and cargo vessels of 500 GT and above. Many fishing vessels are well below these thresholds. The absence of an AIS return in fishing grounds is normal. Radar and visual watch are the primary detection methods.

Q: A fishing vessel is flashing its Aldis lamp at me. What does this mean?
A: It most commonly means the vessel wants your attention — possibly because your intended course takes you into their gear field, or because they want to pass information by radio. Respond by calling on channel 16. If you see a series of flashes rather than a specific coded signal, the intent is probably to indicate hazard ahead of your track rather than a formal message.

Q: I can see the fishing vessel's gear in the water. COLREGS Rule 16 requires me to give way. How much room should I give?
A: Rule 16 requires you to take early and substantial action to keep well clear. In a fishing context, keeping well clear means keeping clear of the visible gear plus a safety margin for gear that may extend beyond what you can see. Track radar, assess CPA relative to the outermost visible gear element, and pass with a margin you could defend as reasonable given the gear type and conditions.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

What to carry from this guide:
• The fishing vessel may not be keeping a proper watch — plan for this, do not hope against it
• The gear is the primary hazard, not the vessel itself — your CPA should clear the outermost gear extent, not just the hull
• COLREGS light configurations are what you will see on charts and in exams; actual lights are frequently defective, obscured or non-compliant — act on the situation, not the lights
• VHF is a supplement to collision avoidance; do not delay an early alteration waiting for VHF contact
• Pair trawlers are separated by a net — never pass between a pair-trawling pair
• Longline buoy fields extend for many kilometres — stay outside the buoy field entirely
• ARPA in fishing grounds requires active management, not passive monitoring — manually select priority targets
• Log transit details: contacts made, alterations taken, gear observed — this is your legal record

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