ESPERANCE Police Senior Sergeant Paul Humphries has said an incident involving a commercial fishing vessel that failed to make anticipated communication should serve as a reminder to all commercial and recreation fishers to always monitor emergency radio services.

Shark fishing vessel The Investigator departed Bandy Creek Boat Harbour on Monday August 4, and was last seen on Tuesday August 5 heading for Eucla.

Esperance police were notified when the captain of the vessel, Scott Horton, failed to make contact with his wife over the weekend. When police failed in their attempts to contact the vessel on both satellite phone and emergency radio frequencies, a police air wing search plane was dispatched from Perth.

Luckily the vessel was found on Thursday morning with both the captain and his crew-member safe and well, fishing off the Eastern group of islands.

Mr Horton spoke to the Esperance Express, and said he was grateful for the concern from the authorities.

“Even though there wasn’t a problem on our part, it was comforting to know that all the systems were in place to find somebody if something did go wrong.”

“I spoke to the police and their search pattern was right on target.”

Snr Sgt Humphries said the incident should reinforce the need to make clear arrangements.

“I think it serves as a timely reminder to all fishing vessels to make clear, specific plans in regards to departure and return, and also communication,” Snr Sgt Humphries said.

“Vessels should always monitor emergency radio frequencies and remain in contact with other vessels, either through radio frequencies or through the use of a satellite phone.”

Snr Sgt Humphries also said the implementation of a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS), although not required by law, could have prevented the costly air search.

“The VMS is a piece of equipment based on GPS that is installed in a vessel that Fisheries WA, through their base in Perth, can use to locate vessels.

“If The Investigator had this piece of equipment, when the alarm was raised on Monday we could have contacted Fisheries, and by utilising that equipment they could have given us the position of the vessel in longitude and latitude, the speed at which it was moving, and if it was still above water, which would have saved us a costly search effort.

“It’s a fantastic tool and although it isn’t required by law we would encourage all skippers, especially in commercial vessels, to use this piece of equipment.”