Flooding accidents in Spanish fishing boats

Flooding accidents in fishing boats, especially when there are human casualties, are of great concern for society, mainly in the region where they take place. The management of a fleet of fishing boats must keep in mind appropriate control mechanisms which guarantee the ships are completely able; they are ready for sailing and their crew members know the safety procedures well. Flooding accidents can be either avoided or reduced only by complying with relevant laws. This is why improving safety at sea has been one of the major concerns of international institutions, national administrations and non-governmental organizations over the past ten years. Today, it is widely acknowledged that developing a legal framework within the sector is the first step towards adopting those measures which improve safety at sea. Within this framework, the aim of this study is twofold: first, it seeks to establish a methodology which is suitable for the fishing sector of a country, so as to make it possible to analyze the accident rate. Second, it attempts to apply such methodology to the Spanish fishing fleet. In this sense, concentration rates and Lorenz curves are observed per region and type of fishing, with regard to the seafarers and the boats of the Spanish fishing fleet.