THE heartbroken sister of a Morfa Nefyn fisherman who tragically died after becoming tangled in his fishing boat’s winch has made an emotional plea to other fishermen to “come home safe to your families”.

Iona Hughes, from Y Ffor, whose 36-year-old brother Gareth ‘Pod’ Jones died while fishing in March 2014, has delivered her heartfelt message in a new RNLI campaign to improve deck machinery safety on fishing boats.

Gareth died after becoming tangled up on the warping drum of his vessel’s winch whilst fishing for scallops off the Llyn Peninsula on Sunday, 30 March, 2014.

The RNLI is encouraging fishermen across the UK to take advantage of funding through the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) which can be used to help replace older, more dangerous deck machinery on their boats.

Iona said: “I don’t know how to express how awful it was, for us as a family and the whole community, when we heard that Gareth had died. I just couldn’t believe what had happened. I was in complete and utter shock.

“Fishing can be a dangerous job, so fishermen need to do everything they can to stay as safe as possible. My message is simple – at the end of a day’s fishing, you need to come home safe to your families. Take advantage of this European funding to improve the safety of your boats.”

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