It's Maritime Safety Week!

As it's Maritime SAFETY Week we thought it would be good to bring you some exciting updates:

The UK Maritime Minister, Nusrat Ghani, has announced the inaugural Maritime Safety Week!

Maritime Safety Week aims to raise awareness and promote higher maritime safety standards in UK waters, and provides a platform for us to learn and grow in this safety sector.

Journey tracker

There have already been positive outcomes in the lead up to the week, starting with the adoption of RYA SafeTrx, an app created by The Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) and the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) for iPhone and Android that allows you to track your journey in UK waters on your phone. The app is designed to improve safety at sea by providing all recreational boat users, particularly dinghy cruisers, PWC users, RIB users, canoers, kayakers, wind and kite surfers and smaller boat users with an easily accessible and simple to use means that can inform HM Coastguard of their journey plans and location in the event of distress.

To see how SafeTrx works, visit: https://www.rya.org.uk/knowledge-advice/safe-boating/keep-in-touch/Pages/safetrx.aspx

Wearing a lifejacket could have saved 8 out 10 lives

About 180 people died because they weren’t wearing a lifejacket in UK waters in the last decade, according to new research.

A study investigating how many of the 1,000-plus deaths recorded in British waters from 2007-2016 were avoidable was carried out by international experts in drowning physiology, Professor Mike Tipton and Dr Gemma Milligan of the University of Portsmouth as part of a collaborative project run by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

Full study: https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/a-10year-descriptive-analysis-of-uk-maritime-and-coastguard-data-on-lifejacket-use-and-drowning-prevention(83d29eb7-fb00-4f02-8a28-224ee6cbbe1a).html

The week, running from 9 – 13 July, offers an opportunity to share knowledge and best practice, stimulate conversations and create connections under the hashtags: #MaritimeSafetyWeek and #MaritimeSafetyMatters. The department is also welcoming ideas and initiatives from the industry using the email [email protected] for any queries or assistance. Throughout the week, Nusrat Ghani will be making a series of visits and announcements all over the UK.