§ 51. Mr. James Johnsonasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he has now finished his check on the stability characteristics of the distant water trawling fleet; and what percentage of existing trawlers so far examined does not meet the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organisation standards.
§ Mr. Goronwy RobertsYes. In a special investigation which was completed in October, 1969, the Board of Trade has checked the stability of 92 vessels representing a cross-section of of the total of 180 vessels in the distant water fleet. The Board already had the required information and was satisfied with the stability of 35 modern stern trawlers within the fleet. The remaining 53 vessels are being submitted voluntarily by the owners and of these 20 have already been examined. Thus, a total of 147 vessels (81 per cent of the fleet) have already come under the Board's direct scrutiny.
In 22 per cent. of cases so far examined failure to meet I.M.C.O. standards was found to occur in varying degrees at some period of a voyage cycle. In all but six or seven of these cases the deficiencies revealed have been amenable to rectification without structural modification, i.e. by control of deadweight well within the capabilities of the operation.