Relatives of lost fishers say lives at risk without mandatory vessel stability checks

Relatives of Nova Scotia fishers who died in a 2020 sinking say it’s frustrating to see that little progress has been made on a key safety recommendation requiring assessments of vessel stability.

Lori Cogswell-Phillips, the mother of fisher Aaron Cogswell, says the federal government is “playing with peoples’ lives” by not acting more quickly on the recommendation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

The agency in its 2023 report on the sinking of the Chief William Saulis in the Bay of Fundy — which resulted in the deaths of Cogswell and five other fishers — concluded the boat had not undergone a stability test after it was modified.

The safety board had been calling for mandatory stability assessments since a capsizing in 2015 killed three people.

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It has said the assessments would permit crews to load catch and gear in a way that helps prevent vessels from flipping over.

The board noted this week in its annual assessment of recommendations that Transport Canada’s response to the decade-old stability recommendation remains “unsatisfactory.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 6, 2025.