In order to improve safety, resilience must be included in the knowledge of complex systems. This paper uses the example of sea fishing to discuss the concept of resilience and its articulation to the notion of safety in conditions of extreme risk. A total of 34 sea-fishing skippers, divided into two groups, took part in an interactive simulation of a fishing campaign. They had to make decisions in situations of trade-off between safety and production goals. Results showed that from the time they left the harbor, the fishermen never gave up on fishing, even in extreme conditions, and regardless of whether or not the catch was good. However, they used multiple expert strategies to reduce risk without giving up on their fishing activity. The question of whether the fishing system can be made safer through constrained safety is considered. The findings suggest that the process of making systems safer always leads to an increase in constrained safety, to the detriment of self-managed safety. The system becomes more rigid and less resilient as it becomes safer. Future research needs on new approaches to safety-improving actions for risky systems are discussed.
Samenvatting