Netting a blessing ... Bishop Peter Comensoli presiding over Sunday's Blessing of the Fleet. Photo: Dean Sewell
AUSTRALIAN fishermen are 29 times more likely to die on the job than the average worker, Safe Work Australia says.
The dangers were on Bishop Peter Comensoli's mind as he presided over Sunday's Blessing of the Fleet at the Sydney Fish Market, an annual tradition that began centuries ago in Mediterranean fishing villages.
''This is not just for show. They are seriously wanting the Lord's protection,'' said Bishop Comensoli of Sydney's Catholic archdiocese who, aboard the trawler Francesca, led the fishermen in prayer that the year would be safe and bountiful.
A carved statue of the madonna and child was a focal point of the blessing of the fleet. Photo: Dean Sewell
The life of a fisherman is lonely and dangerous, said Ted Richardson, who retired last year as national director of the Apostleship of the Sea, a not-for-profit group that provides pastoral care for seafarers and their families.
''I've seen fishermen hooked up and dragged over the stern of the boat. I've seen the damage done by hooks that rip into flesh,'' Mr Richardson said.
Months away at sea could erode families, he said. He had heard many horror stories over the years such as that of a fisherman in far north Queensland who in 2000 disappeared and whose intact head was later discovered inside a 1.7 metre black cod.
Between 2005 and 2011, 29 fishermen died at work. The most recent available figures, from 2009-10, showed that 22 employees out of every 1000 in the fishing industry made serious workers' compensation claims, nearly double that of all other industries.
As the flotilla circled the harbour on Sunday the port's security boat sprayed the boats with powerful hoses.
''We need the blessings,'' Tony Bagnato, 40, whose family owns Francesca, that fishes between Newcastle and Wollongong said. The Bagnatos were joined by three other trawlers carrying several dozen fishermen, their wives, mothers, children, a cavalier King Charles spaniel named Monty and a little mermaid.
The mermaid, a sunburnt 18-year-old wearing a green bra, belly ring and a plastic tail, reposed on a steel bench on Francesca's lower deck. Asked about her role in the proceedings, the mermaid Louise Mawby, said: ''I can't move. I don't know anything. Talk to my boss.''
Her boss Renee Chidiac, owner of Shimmerbaby Mermaids, explained the mermaids performed at ''a do a lot of corporate events''. Performing mermaids aside, the fishermen took the ceremony seriously.
''The life of a fisherman[means] you're on your own,'' Tony Bagnato's cousin, Paul said. ''If the weather goes bad, you're the one who's got to deal with it. If something goes wrong with the boat, there is no NRMA.''
Meanwhile, a rock fisherman died on Sunday after being swept off rocks at Little Bay.
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