Fishing Safety, Mental Health & Getting Fishermen Home Safe

Send us Fan Mail🚨 Fishing safety is not just about rules, equipment, or compliance. It is about making sure fishermen come home alive, uninjured, and supported.In this episode of Sea Views, host Julia Gosling is joined by Adam Parnell and guest Darren Guard of Guard Safety, a New Zealand fishing safety specialist whose life and work are deeply rooted in the commercial fishing industry.Darren comes from one of New Zealand’s oldest European-descendant fishing families and has spent his life around fishing vessels, boatbuilding, crew, risk, regulation, injury prevention, and seafarer wellbeing. In this conversation, he shares how personal experience, industry trust, plain-language safety systems, and practical collaboration can change safety culture across commercial fishing.The discussion moves from New Zealand’s fishing history and fleet realities to the mental health pressures facing inshore fishers, the importance of meeting fishermen where they are, and why safety training must be accessible, relevant, and built around real working lives. Darren also explains the development of MarineSAFE, the potential of online safety training for remote fishing communities, and the work being done through the MarineSAFE Pacific project.Darren’s message is clear: safety has to be understandable, achievable, relevant, and built with the people it is meant to protect.In this episode, you’ll hear:• Why safety culture depends on trust, not just regulation• How Darren helped reduce serious safety incidents through practical, plain-language systems• Why fishermen need support as people, not just as workers• The mental health pressures facing commercial and inshore fishing communities• Why remote and artisanal fishers need accessible online safety training• How MarineSAFE Pacific could support fishing communities across the Pacific• What the Cape Town Agreement means for international fishing safety• Why collaboration between regulators and fishers mattersResources:MarineSAFE: https://marinesafe.nzThe Gleam Fishing Channel:    / @thegleamfishingchannel  NEWS!  If you love listening to us....you can also watch Sea Views episodes on YouTube.CHIRPImproving safety at sea worldwide through the confidential and independent reporting programme.Make an incident report to CHIRP Maritime hereThe Seafarers' CharityImproving the lives of seafarers and their families for more than 105 years.by Ahoy Communications Ltd