Inspired by great-grandfather's near death, scholarship winner hopes to make life safer for fishermen

Richard Woodbury · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 05, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

Ben Collings-Mackay says helium knows however he's going to walk the $45,000 helium received for the prestigious Frank H. Sobey scholarship.

Collings-Mackay, a fourth-year concern pupil astatine St. Francis Xavier University successful Antigonish, N.S., and a fourth-generation lobster fisherman, is 1 of 8 recipients this twelvemonth of the assistance for Atlantic Canadian concern students. He has a concern focused connected creating a life-jacket for commercialized fishermen that is little cumbersome than accepted ones.

The life-jacket would inflate automatically erstwhile idiosyncratic hits the h2o and would person a GPS diagnostic that sends retired pings to adjacent boats and exigency services detailing the overboard person's location, said Collings-Mackay. A strobe airy connected the overgarment would besides assistance marque it easier to find the person.

Collings-Mackay said his company, CM Marine Safety Equipment, is moving with a instrumentality steadfast and hopes to record patent applications wrong the adjacent fewer weeks.

He said the institution has been moving with an engineering steadfast to make a prototype of the life-jacket and aims to get it built this summer. The instrumentality would beryllium tested in preparation for approval by regulatory agencies specified arsenic Transport Canada and the United States Coast Guard.

"Engineers and lawyers aren't cheap," said Collings-Mackay, a 22-year-old from Montague, P.E.I. "And it's going to beryllium large to beryllium capable to support pushing this task further down the roadworthy and get it 1 measurement person to redeeming somebody's life. This is what this grant means."

For Collings-Mackay, information connected the h2o is personal.

1958 tragedy

In June 1958, his great-grandfather and a workfellow had conscionable sold their catch for the day. When they were going backmost to enactment successful a airy plywood dinghy — according to the June 6, 1958, Charlottetown Guardian — the vessel capsized, throwing the brace into a swift outgoing tide. Collings-Mackay's great-grandfather managed to drawback connected to a mooring enactment that was moving betwixt a buoy and a vessel anchored ashore, and pulled himself to safety. His colleague, Ernest Brown, was swept distant with the tide and died.

And connected Collings-Mackay's archetypal time of fishing, which came aft his archetypal twelvemonth of university, helium got a reminder of the dangers connected the water.

When a vessel pulled up beside the 1 Collings-Mackay was on, helium noticed a antheral who was soaking bedewed and a spot wobbly. When the antheral had been out at sea, helium was knocked overboard but managed to survive.

Collings-Mackay asked himself wherefore the idiosyncratic wasn't wearing a life-jacket. But he soon had a antithetic position astir life-jackets erstwhile helium was retired working.

"You recognize wherefore radical don't deterioration them and however they're conscionable wholly inadequate for the job," helium said, noting they're bulky, get caught connected things and get successful the mode of carrying retired one's duties.

As well, Collings-Mackay said, there's a stigma astir life-jackets.

"Fishing is simply a precise generational, accepted industry," helium said. "People food with their fathers and their grandfathers and they ne'er deterioration them, truthful wherefore would they? And I deliberation there's besides a spot of a adjacent unit determination arsenic good to fit successful maybe, arsenic silly arsenic it whitethorn sound."

Fishing deaths

From 1999 to 2021, the mean fig of deaths per twelvemonth connected Canadian commercialized sportfishing vessels was astir 12. In astir fractional of the instances, a deficiency of idiosyncratic flotation devices was the reason.

Mary Oxner is 1 of Collings-Mackay's accounting professors. She said the scope of what he is moving connected is acold much analyzable than businesses galore different students acceptable up.

"This is an costly happening to bring to market," she said. "It requires extended testing, it requires a patent, it requires ineligible consult, it requires method and engineering enactment … it's a analyzable happening to bash erstwhile you're a young 20-something-year-old to effort to propulsion each of those supports and resources."

Collings-Mackay's entrepreneurial aspirations are a acold outcry from his archetypal beingness plans. Growing up, helium ever figured he'd articulation the military. (He does serve in the Nova Scotia Highlanders reserve unit.) He said his parents, who are teachers, encouraged him to absorption connected getting an education.

'It's truly giving maine a purpose'

School didn't ever travel casual to Collings-Mackay, who struggled and had to beryllium tutored successful mathematics successful secondary school, which is surprising given helium majors successful accounting today.

"If I didn't travel to school, I would person ne'er done this project," helium said. "And I deliberation it's truly giving maine a purpose, thing that I tin execute and strive towards."

That information comes successful portion from the radical who person invested successful his company, but besides the information of loved ones.

"Whenever I pitch, I accidental it's nary greater information than having each your friends and household retired determination sportfishing each time without a life-jacket on," helium said. "It's a calamity waiting to happen."