§ Mr. Foulkesasked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list all cases reported to his Department or to the coastguard, or about which his Department has information where fishing vessels have been in any kind of incident involving (a) British, (b) United States or (c) about submarines; and what action he has taken as a result.
§ Mr. Michael Spicer[pursuant to his reply, 4 March 1987, Vol. 111, c. 605]: Her Majesty's Coastguard has not been involved in any SAR operations involving fishing vessels and submarines since 1979 other than the Summer Morn. The signal log book at Clyde recorded that FV Berachah (6 December 1982) and FV Huntress (11 September 1984) had reported that a submarine had caused them difficulty. No further details are known.
No such incident has been reported to other divisions in my Department but the maritime safety committee of the International Maritime Organisation discussed, last year, the dangers of fishing vessels at sea posed by submerged submarines and subsequently issued an advisory circular.