Not a bad idea if you ask me...
From the Daily Telegraph website today, written by Neil Keene. Original article here.
ROCK fishermen could be forced to wear personal flotation devices following the deaths of 12 anglers along the NSW coast.
Findings were handed down this morning from a coronial inquest into all 12 deaths, which occurred in separate incidents in Sydney, Wollongong and the Central Coast in 2009 and 2010.
Coroner Mark Buscombe said that while the deaths occurred separately, all shared several common factors.
All of the people who drowned were from non-Anglo backgrounds, none of them wore life-jackets and most occurred at night when visibility was poor and sea conditions were “particularly dangerous”.
Mr Buscombe said the Department of Primary Industries needed to consider whether personal flotation devices should be made compulsory for rock fishermen.
He also recommended a consideration for extra funding for Surf Life Saving NSW and other organisations for rock fishing safety campaigns, especially for people from a non-Anglo background.
Councils should also consider expediting the erection of warning signs and the installation of life rings in high-risk areas, Mr Buscombe said.
The 12 anglers whose deaths prompted the inquest included husband and wife Po and Yuet Poon, their son Dillon and their friends Dennis and Jenny Tin, Hong Kong emigrants who all died in May last year during a fishing trip to a spot known as Flat Rock near Catherine Hill Bay.
Yong Jin Jo, 66, from Korea, died several days earlier at a fishing spot at nearby Snapper Point.
Zimbabwe national Langton Mali died in February, 2010, after being washed off rocks at Avoca Beach on the Central Coast, while Cook Islander John Pitomaki, 44, drowned in May, 2009, during a fishing trip to Little Bay Beach in Sydney.
Wan Uk Lee, 71, from Korea, died in March, 2009, after being swept off rocks near Port Kembla. Indonesian native Han Fie Tjoe, 43, also died during a rock fishing expedition in the same area the following month.
Heeki Kim, 41, drowned in May, 2010, during a rockfishing trip to Kiama.