Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to identify the necessary safety
equipment carried by each fishing vessel according to class or fishing
zone. Zones for fishing areas are split into Zone A, B, C, and C2. This
research concentrates on the area of Kuala Terengganu. Discussions
and interviews with the officers from the Department of Fisheries,
Malaysia on the safety equipment of fishing vessel are held. Matters
discussed are limited to the types of safety equipment available on each
fishing vessel by class, classes or courses provided by the fishing
training institutes to the fishermen and fishing vessel license renewals.
Next, the project identifies the level of awareness of safety equipment
on fishing vessels. Descriptive analyses of the survey are conducted in
sections A, B and C, and discussed on the levels of awareness to get
more precise results while achieving the objectives of the above study.
Some 70 fishermen in Kuala Terengganu form the respondents and the
majority of them have Lower Secondary Assessment certificate (PMR)
and Malaysian Education Certificate (SPM). They are mostly of middle
age between 31-35 years old with the majority of them acquiring fishing
experience in the range of 6-10 years. Based on the distribution of the
fishing zone, about 45.7% of total respondent from A Zone which is the
highest and the crews have occupied the highest distribution of the
types of work with 35.7°/o. About 17.1 % have been involved in
accidents at sea and another 82.9% have not experienced in accidents.
The level of knowledge on safety equipments among fishermen which
can be represented the total percentage of reply YES was 67.1 % and
reply NO was 32.9% where only 1.4% do not know the importance of
safety equipments. Most of the safety equipments installed onboard
fishing vessels were not enough and in poor condition. The installations
of the safety equipment were not at correct places and they are
sometimes located at positions that they are not easily accessible when
required.
