Public and Private Sectors Working Together to Raise Safety Awareness and Reduce Casualties in Maritime Accidents

- MOF, KOMSA, and Suhyup to hold the 2025 Workshop for the Marine Safety Practice Division.

 The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF; Minister Kang Do-hyung) has announced that it will hold the First 2025 Workshop for the Marine Safety Campaign Program* on Thursday, February 13 to discuss ways of enhancing the implementation of marine safety practices in order to reduce the number of casualties caused by marine accidents.

 * Marine Safety Campaign Program: A public-private cooperative body composed of the MOF, Korea Maritime Safety Authority (KOMSA), and marine-related business organizations that has carried out education, campaigns, contests, and cultural projects in order to spread the country's marine safety culture since 2013.

 Since 2013, the MOF has held the annual workshop in order to increase compliance with the safety regulations in marine environments and to reduce the number of fatal accidents. In particular, to prevent serious accidents such as capsizing, sinking, and other types of safety incidents (e.g., entanglement in fishing gear) during fishing operations, which often result in significant casualties, a public-private cooperation system has been established to raise safety awareness among fishermen and workers.

 Field education instructors from the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives (Suhyup) and the Korea Fisheries Infrastructure Public Agency (FIPA), as well as maritime safety experts, will participate in this year's workshop, where they will discuss ways to enhance the effectiveness of safety education for fishermen, including the use of VR to simulate real-life accident scenarios so as to prevent the recurrence of common fishing vessel accidents.

 Minister Kang Do-hyung emphasized the importance of public-private collaboration: "Maritime accidents can only be effectively prevented through cooperation between the public and private sectors, making the attention and active participation of the relevant organizations and groups crucial. The Maritime Safety Campaign Program, a cooperative organization of the government, public institutions, and private organizations, will communicate continuously with people in the field in order to strengthen the implementation of safety education, and will persistently promote maritime safety education and awareness campaigns."