"The legislation in occupational hazards matter establishes that the workers must receive periodically a specific training depending on their working place. It is habitual that this training ends up being very general for all workers, instead of specific, and it is habitual also not to get the periodic training for the complications that the organization of the same one carries, especially in sectors as this one in which the workers are relocated by long periods. Therefore, the workers are not adequately trained in preventive measures with the consequent risk of accident.At present, the training in occupational hazards of the trawling fishing activity is given by traditional technologies of learning. Isn´t updated with the new technologies. Also, there do not exist programs of training of prevention of labor risks normalized to European level. The standardization of the training to European level and the use of ICT will give an added value to the same one, facilitating the mobility of the personnel and improving their qualification.Based on these needs identified in the trawling fishing sector in terms of qualifications and learning for an appropriate management of occupational risks associated with the activities of trawling fishing, the proposal ""SAFE FISHING"" arises whose aims are: - To provide and to advise to the sector of the trawling fishing in a transverse skills corresponding to the prevention of labor risks: “Program Normalized to European Level for the management of the prevention of labor risks in the trawling fishing sector”- To promote an educational innovative development in the sector with the use of the ICT: “DVD: SAFE FISHING”Adapting and improving the Spanish contents through the use of the ICT, the partnership will develop a specific, audiovisual training contents which will be used by the workers to develop their daily activities in safer conditions and fewer workplace accidents.Consortium:The project partnership is composed by six partners from five European countries with great experience in vocational training in the sector and in prevention of occupational risks.- ARVI (professional association): Spain- SGS TECNOS (multinational corporation): Spain- MARE (fishermen cooperative) Italy- IMP (institute of the sector): France- RTEU (University): Turkey- EUROPECHE (European Association): BelgiumThe activities of the project have lead to the creation of the following outputs:- PRELIMINARY STUDY AND IDENTIFICATION OF TRAINING NEEDS IN PREVENTION OF LABOR RISKS IN THE TRAWLING FISHING SECTOR- PROTOTYPE OF PROGRAM NORMALIZED TO EUROPEAN LEVEL FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF THE PREVENTION OF LABOR RISKS IN THE TRAWLING FISHING SECTOR- STANDARIZED AUDIOVISUAL PROGRAM AT EUROPEAN LEVEL FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF THE PREVENTION OF LABOR RISKS IN THE TRAWLING FISHING SECTORThe project has succeeded to reach the following impacts:- Promote the standardization of training as prevention of occupational hazards for this sector at European level.- Provision of learning and innovative learning materials.- Favor access to distance learning- To facilitate ongoing training (VET)The long-term effects sought are:- Professionalization of the sector to European level - Improvement of the knowledge in the use of the ICT for the professionals of the sector to European level. - Technological Development and improvement of the competitiveness of the sector in Europe.- To facilitate the mobility of the professionals between countries - To facilitate the linguistic diversity in the sector- Promotion of new European projects"

CONTEXTEmergencies in ships are stressful situations where crews must follow specific guidelines and procedures to assure their safety. According several studies, most of fatal accidents in fishing sector were due to lack of knowledge on devices and / or emergency procedures, or non-completion of periodic training exercises and simulations.To assure a correct reaction by the crew in emergency situations, trainings and simulations are needed, where crewmen are exposed to a series of scenarios to demonstrate they know the procedures, and how to execute them.VET entities in the marine sector don’t have nowadays any kind of tool that can help crewmen to learn the procedures of how to react in these situations, apart from guidelines and handbooks, and trainings onboard are difficult to plan since vessels are operating most of their time, either at sea or charging procedures.Virtual Reality (VR) environments are becoming a more effective learning tool, where pupils can experience these emergency situations in immersive environments, moving around a 3D universe and interacting with people and objects. OBJECTIVESA consortium of partners proposes to develop the project Virtual Reality for Maritime Emergencies: VR-ME, whose objectives are:- To develop an 3D immersive environment based on a trawler fishing boat, accessible through a Virtual Reality kit.- To develop a set of emergency situations based on the formal training requirements for crew and the most common and dangerous cases- Base on these elements, a training course will be created to tackle these emergency situations, in which the pupil will be tested to complete them in the 3D environment. This will serve to learn how to react and what procedures must be followedThe course will be distributed in Open Access format, accessible to be used by downloading this software and using a 3D kit. The main target beneficiaries of this course will be:- Professionals of the fishing sector- VET providers and academies in the fishing sector and work safety- Public & private Entities working in labour safety- Professional Associations of fishermenPARTICIPANTS:The consortium is formed by a set of entities combining VET providers and representatives of the fishing sector:-Institut Maritime de Prévention- Applicant (France): The main training entity for labour safety in the french maritime sector-SGS TECNOS (Spain) is the world leader in certification and regulation. A renowned training company specially focused on work safety-ARVI (Spain) The fishing Vessel Owners´ Co-operative of the Port of Vigo, -SQ LEARN (Greece) expert developers of Virtual Reality tools for VET-Pelagic Freezer-trawler Association (Netherlands) represents the interests of several trawler companies-EUROPECHE (Belgium): The main representative of the fishing industry in EuropeACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGYThe main output for this project will be t a training programe for Maritime Emergencies in vessel, whose central axis will be the VR simulator of the procedures to be followed in the most common emergencies onboard a fishing vessel. It will be developed in the following steps:IO1- Maritime emergencies and procedures. Risk analysis and adaptability to simulator: The project will start with a study of the maritime emergencies in fishing vessels. Partner will list which emergencies should be selected according to several criteria, will develop the procedures to be followed and finally will write these procedures in a language to be converted to a VR simulator.IO2- Maritime emergencies simulator development: Based on the emergencies an procedures detected in the previous step, partners will develop the VR environment where the user moves inside a ship and has to face several emergency scenarios.IO3- Testing, translation and production of complementary materials: Finally the consortium will complement and improve the simulator with several tests with the final beneficiaries to get their feedback, producing the handbook to manage the software properly, complementing the simulator with the training program to be offered offer in a bundled package, and translatingall contents to partners’ languages.EXPECTED RESULTS IMPACT AND LONGER TERM BENEFITSWith this project, the consortium aims to:- Prepare fishermen to better face emergency situations onboard- Decrease of accidents and fatalities rate- Got towards a harmonization of emergency onboard procedures- Increase computer literacy of fishing professionals and the digitalization in the sector

NETTAG+ aims to provide a portfolio of three suitable innovative smart and sustainable solutions to address the negative impacts of fishing gears on marine life and habitats, in line with the second issue of the call “Environmental impacts of fishing gears”. NETTAG+ will be based on synergistic activities between the fisheries industry, scientists and NGOs to develop three solutions to PREVENT, AVOID and MITIGATE the harmful impacts of fishing gears. We will PREVENT marine litter derived from fisheries activities, AVOID loss of fishing gears, and MITIGATE harmful impact by removing existing ALDFG. These three solutions will jointly contribute to reduce ALDFG and marine pollution, namely by: reducing the introduction of hazardous chemicals and microplastics originated from ALDFG; reducing ghost fishing, bycatch and entanglements of sensitive or endangered species on ALDFG; and improving mapping, tracking and recovery technologies to retrieve ALDFG. NETTAG+ aims to upgrade and upscale the integrative preventive approach started in the previous NetTag project, and replicate it in Mediterranean regions. The three solutions will be developed to maturity (TRL 7-8) by the end of the project, and will be tested, validated and demonstrated in real conditions in Atlantic and Mediterranean countries, namely Portugal (PT), United Kingdom (UK), Spain (SP), Italy (IT), Croatia (HR) and Malta (MT). NETTAG+ ambition is to change the paradigm of the fisheries industry, aspiring to transform the societal perspectives about the role of fishers as Guardians and Cleaners of the Ocean. NETTAG+ will empower the sector to take active actions to address marine pollution, promoting their role as key-actors to tackle marine pollution, and will will provide the fisheries industry with three smart and environmentally-friendly solutions to reduce ALDFG and prevent the environmental impacts of fishing gears.