This study analyzed the allocation of the skipper’s attention during fishing operation in the wheelhouse of a Korean coastal composite fishing vessel by using video observation. To summarize the results, the ratio of lookout, radar and GPS monitoring, which is essential for prevention of collision at sea, was significantly lower than that of other fishing operation due to the attention concentration on the work place during hauling line. In order to reduce exposure to risk of collisions due to concentration of attention to certain tasks such as line hauling, it is necessary to develop an alert system that can notify the approach of other ships or obstruction throughout the ship using information from radar or the automatic identification system. In addition, the order of attention allocation to devices and facilities obtained in this study is expected to be used as basic data for device or facility layout based on the principle of usage frequency in designing wheelhouse for coastal composite fishing vessels in the future.

This research carried out a study on the job characteristics of the skipper of the coastal composite fishing vessels in order to find a way to prevent the ship collision caused by the highest human error among the marine casualty of fishing boats. Video observation was used as the research method in which six CCD cameras were installed on the vessel to collect image data and data extracted from the image were analyzed to derive the results of the functional activity of skipper according to the fishing operation process of experimental fishing vessel. The results are as follows. The working process of the experimental fishing vessel consisted of navigation for fishing ground, setting line, waiting for hauling line, hauling line and navigation to homeport. In these processes, the skipper was performing watchkeeping in the wheelhouse in which he carried out a single task, a dual task that performed two tasks simultaneously, and a triple task that performed two or more tasks simultaneously. In addition, one of the risk factors causing the collision was a no watchkeeping in the wheelhouse for navigating for fishing ground, waiting for hauling line, and hauling line at 25.4%, 64.6% and 0.3%, respectively among the marine casualty while drowsiness caused 1.2% of the marine casualty in navigating for fishing ground. Concurrent tasks that simultaneously perform two or more tasks that can overlook any other important duties while carrying out watchkeeping in the wheelhouse include 51.3% of navigation for fishing ground, 81.9% of setting line, 19.0% of waiting for hauling line, 87.9% of hauling, and 88.7% of navigation to homeport. The above concurrent tasks yielded an average of 66.1%. Experimental fishing vessels are required to focus on ship handling operations related to fishery operations, and the skipper is assigned more activities and attention to fishery related tasks. Therefore, it is considered desirable to build a collision prevention system that is appropriate to the characteristics of the skipper’s work, escaping from transferring the responsibility of ship collision to the skipper completely.