Relatives of lost fishers say lives at risk without mandatory vessel stability checks

Relatives of Nova Scotia fishers who died in a 2020 sinking say it's disheartening that little progress has been made on a key safety recommendation requiring assessments of vessel stability.

Lori Cogswell-Phillips, the mother of fisher Aaron Cogswell, said in an interview Friday the federal government and the fishing industry are putting crews at risk by not acting more quickly on the recommendation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

"They're just playing with peoples' lives," she said.

Since a 2015 capsizing of a fishing vessel killed three people, the safety board has been calling for Transport Canada to mandate stability assessments, which would permit crews to load catch and gear in a way that helps prevent vessels from flipping over.

Cogswell-Phillips said having naval architects test fishing boat stability is crucial because it would mean fishers have a more dependable workplace in one of the country's most hazardous jobs.

"There's already so many things that can go wrong in terms of rough weather when fishing, at least [with a stability test] you know you're in a dependable vessel that's going to ... get you through what you have to get through," she said.

In its 2023 report on the sinking of the Chief William Saulis in the Bay of Fundy — which resulted in the deaths of Cogswell and five other fishers — the safety agency concluded the boat had not undergone a stability test after it was modified.

Michelle Thibault, whose ex-husband, Daniel Forbes, died in the sinking, said in an interview Friday that it's hard to keep revisiting the tragedy without seeing recommended reforms completed.

"You want to give up because it's really not a fight that I can win. It's between the government and the fishermen, and the fishermen don't want to pay for it [stability assessments] and neither does the government," she said.

"What it really comes down to is money. How many people need to die before somebody's going to put the money out to pay for this?"

'Underlying risk ... for a large portion of the fishing fleet'

The board noted this week in its annual assessment of recommendations that Transport Canada's response to the decade-old stability recommendation remains "unsatisfactory." It said it is making efforts to "expand awareness" of vessel stability in the fishing industry but added that a voluntary approach won't be sufficient.

"The safety board ... continues to strongly believe that until Transport Canada ensures that all small fishing vessels undergo a stability assessment appropriate to their size ... the underlying risk will remain for a large portion of the fishing fleet," the agency said.

In an interview Friday, board chair Yoan Marier noted that there are other recommendations aimed at promoting boat stability that remain incomplete. The safety board would like Transport Canada to bring in "additional oversight over [fishing vessel] modifications."

"At this point, we have a feeling that we are starting to repeat ourselves. We have had a number of accidents that we've investigated in the past few years ... and they're all significant accidents where [vessel] stability was a factor," he said.

"We'd like the Transport Department to put additional efforts into resolving this safety deficiency."

The Chief William Saulis should have been tested for stability after its owners added a heavy, A-frame structure for scallop dragging, a protective plate to the boat's stern, and covers to close drainage holes, the safety board said in its 2023 report.

Chief William Saulis was returning home  

On Dec. 15, 2020, the modified vessel capsized in the Bay of Fundy during a gale as it returned to its home port in Digby, N.S.

In its report, the board made clear that it had long urged a stricter law on stability assessments and that Transport Canada had not complied. Kathy Fox, chair of the board at the time, said during the report's release that a stability assessment and guidelines prepared by a naval architect are "the only way the crew on these vessels will know the safe operating limits."

Crew on the Chief William Saulis followed the industry practice of heavily loading the vessel with catch during the return crossing to the wharf in Digby. Due to the rough weather, the crew had left about half the scallops on the deck with the shells still on, which allowed them to slide about, the report said.

About 2,700 kilograms of scallops were stacked almost two-metres high on the boat's deck, likely contributing to the boat's instability and potentially blocking its ability to drain water.