Marine mussel farms work by growing mussels on ropes, which are then hauled on to a barge, stripped off the rope and cleaned in the mussel tumbler.
Prior to the incident, the victim noticed a bit of seaweed left inside a tumbler and reached in to grab it.
A tumbler is an essential piece of purpose-built machinery that needs to be cleaned after each mussel harvest in order to remove any debris that may be left inside.
Another worker, who was in the vessel’s cabin, went through the usual process of turning the vessel on, which immediately restored power to the tumbler.
The victim’s arm was still inside the tumbler and got caught in the fast-turning machinery, causing significant injury.
Maritime NZ investigation’s manager John Maxwell said the incident wouldn’t have occurred if the machinery had been configured in a way that prevented the tumbler turning on while its doors were open.
“The worker removes the debris by hand, and the tumbler should have been turned off when it was being cleaned; the particular tumbler was not configured to automatically shut off if the door was open.”
In a statement, Maritime NZ strongly recommended that operators take a proactive approach with managing the risks in their operations and have the correct procedures in place to protect their employees.
After the incident, Paddy Bull had the engineering controls modified on the tumbler to prevent an incident happening again.
The company has been contacted for comment.
