Pillars of the Sea 3: Project implementing part of the SSDC Work Programme roadmap towards socially sustainable fishing
Grant Agreement Project 101051878
External contractor: Upgrade of the mobile application Fishery Speak
Background
Sea fishing is a remote and challenging professional activity. Considering the hazardous nature of the
work environment, it is paramount for the crew on board (often multinational) to be able to
communicate fast and understandably for the safest outcome of dangerous situations leading to
casualties and incidents. Half of the accidents for all types of fishing vessels take place during fishing
operations in territorial and open sea such as engine rooms on fire while on passage, capsizing or
grounding of the vessel, flooding, sinking, collision, and general loss of control. For instance, when
abandoning ship, actions like an emergency call, pick-up of the radio beacon, access the life raft, gather
at the meeting point and so on, require vast knowledge of the safety procedures and cannot permit
any faults in the communication between each crew member.
The Social Partners for Sea Fisheries therefore created the ‘Fishery Speak’ app as part of the project
‘Towards a true socially sustainable EU Fishery: The contribution of EU social partners’ (VS/2015/0042).
It is an interactive glossary, aimed at improving on board safety as well as navigation security. It
provides an overview of the main phrases used on board in relation to safety procedures. Since
releasing the app, the Social Partners observed that certain upgrades in functionality and speech
recognition were needed. Hence, in the latest project ‘Pillars of the Sea 2: project implementing part
of the SSDC Work Programme’ (VS/2019/0013), the application has been improved accordingly and
languages were added (the app currently entails English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Polish, Arabic, Russian
and Italian).
Since the release of the upgraded application, positive feedback and requests for additional languages
and updates have been received. Hence, the aim is to further upgrade the mobile application with the
additional languages and necessary uploads and technical updates to be identified as essential by the
Social Partners.
The action aims at improving fishers’ knowledge and skills, as well as crew communication, which
ultimately improves safety on board and is therefore of special interest of the project.
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