HSE issues safety alert after shellfish diver deaths

Date:

22 June 2011

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has issued a safety alert after two shellfish divers died in separate incidents in inshore waters in Scotland.

The incidents, at Methil and Largo Bay in the Forth estuary, are still under investigation and the facts surrounding the deaths have yet to be established.

HSE has issued the alert to remind the industry of the essential aspects of safe diving operations.

Its guidance makes clear that the minimum team size normally required when diving for shellfish is three - a supervisor, a working diver, and a standby diver.

Additional people may be required to operate the boat and to assist in an emergency. The standby diver should be in immediate readiness to provide any assistance to the diver in the water.

Those not employed by the diving contractor but who are included in the dive team must also be competent for the work they are going to do. They should be familiar with the diving contractor's procedures, rules and the diving equipment being used.

Chris Sherman, HSE's Chief Inspector of Diving, said:

"Diving for shellfish can be a dangerous activity and needs to be carried out by competent and appropriately qualified divers. Suitable plans and procedures are key to the whole diving team conducting activities safely and reacting effectively in an emergency.

"Diving is a high hazard activity, but if it is conducted properly, in accordance with the regulations and guidance, the risks can be managed. Simple measures taken to ensure that the diver in trouble can communicate to the dive supervisor and that the diver is marked by a line and float, or by a line to an attendant on the dive boat, maximise the chance of a successful outcome to an emergency situation."

HSE publishes guidance for shellfish divers - Commercial shellfish diving in inshore water: Diving at Work Regulations 1997 - which can be freely downloaded from its website.

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement.
2. The guidance, Commercial shellfish diving in inshore water: Diving at Work Regulations 1997, is available on HSE's website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/hid/osd/scallop.pdf
3. The safety alert is available online at http://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/shellfishdiving.htm

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