Hazards

In 1893 the Morecambe Fishermen's Protection Society (later the Morecambe Fishermen's Association) was set up to protect the fishermen from increasing regulation of the fisheries and to campaign against the hazards they encountered, such as stakes nets in the channels where the boats trawled. The fishermen formed an insurance company at the same time to provide cheaper protection against loss and damage. In 1899 51 boats were insured.

Local fishermen established the Morecambe & Heysham Fishermen's Lifeboat Association in 1892. They obtained a boat and provided a crew to help save lives and retrieve fishing boats blown ashore or adrift in rough seas. Financial support was received from the RNLI but in the 1960s an inshore rescue boat replaced the local fishermen's vessel.

Many fishermen could not swim, often explained as a means of preventing them becoming too over-confident; and because their heavy clothing meant that they would drown anyway. If they were in the sea for any length of time, especially in winter, they could also die of exposure fairly quickly.