Fish farmers must be vigilant over new hazards associated with the industry’s technology advances, a safety expert warned today.

Mrs Ann Poyner, a Health and Safety Executive inspector, told the Aquaculture Today 2005 conference in Edinburgh that because the sector was increasing becoming based on more modern technology there are new risks.

The danger of confined spaces, like silos, was one of them.

She told the second day of the event, organised by Fish Farmer Magazine, that new feeding methods changed risks offshore.

“For example, automatic feeding stations have removed a lot of the manual handling problems because guys do not handle feed any more. If everything is going well, they will never go into silos.

“However if you get water in a silo and you get feed sticking to the sides, there will be a greater tendency for someone to go into a silo to sort out the problem. But oxygen in the silo may have been used up by mouldy feed so it has to be tested beforehand.”

The Aquaculture Today 2005 conference was organised by Fish Farmer magazine.

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