Marine farm operator fined $180,000 after serious injury to worker

Farmed mussels in their natural form before being harvested. Photo / Christine Retschlag

A marine farming operator has been fined $180,000 after a serious injury suffered by a worker who had their arm caught in fast-turning machinery.

Maritime NZ has since issued a warning urging operators to have procedures in place to reduce the risks to their workers when machinery is operating.

Paddy Bull Ltd was sentenced in the Auckland District Court earlier this month under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, for breaching its duties by exposing a worker to the risk of death or serious injury.

A $180,000 fine was handed down and the company was ordered to pay victim reparation and court costs.

The incident occurred on a mussel farm in the Coromandel in January 2023 when an employee of Paddy Bull suffered a serious injury to their arm during a post-harvest clean-up operation while accessing the inside of a mussel tumbler on one of the operator’s (Paddy Bull Limited’s) barges, the Riptide.

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.