A fatal accident inquiry will be held into the death of a fisherman who went overboard off the west coast two years ago.
Gary Forbes of Aultbea died after the accident aboard the Barnacle III off the Summer Isles on May 13, 2014.
The inquiry will consider the circumstances of the 36-year-old’s death and will be held at Inverness Sheriff Court on August 17.
A preliminary hearing will also be heard on June 15.
Mr Forbes attended Gairloch High School and Telford College in Edinburgh before becoming a fisherman.
A Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) report into his death has previously found that Mr Forbes was dragged overboard after his leg became caught in a line.
He was pulled from the water by the Barnacle III’s skipper but he could not be resuscitated.
The investigation previously concluded that Mr Forbes’s right leg was probably caught in a buoy line during the shooting of a line of creels.
Mr Forbes, who was not wearing a personal flotation device (PFD) was dragged overboard and under water from the 37ft creel boat.
It also emerged that the skipper was distracted by a distress signal from another boat in the area at the time and did not see his colleague’s accident.
The report stated: “Contrary to the recommended practice, Gary did not wear his PFD because it reportedly caused irritation to his skin, and the skipper only wore his PFD when working the vessel single-handedly. While a PFD would not have prevented Gary from falling overboard, it might well have reduced the time that he was under water, and turned him into an upright position with his airway clear of the water once he had surfaced.”
The report says that the owner has now introduced a policy requiring all Barnacle III’s crew to wear PFDs while working on deck.
The owner of Barnacle III was advised to carry out a thorough written risk assessment of all systems of work employed on the boat, including a reassessment of risks posed to crew members when working two fleets of creels on deck.
