It’s because in the UK, fishermen are either small owner/operators that never have enough money to do things properly, often not even keeping a lookout at sea, the training is far below Merchant Navy standards, or pretty much non existent for deck hands, and most safety standards don’t apply to fishing vessels.

Having worked on fishery protection vessels for the Scottish, Falkland Islands and South Georgia Governments, most countries see fishing as a proper industry, and the vessels are larger, and more akin to a Merchant ship, the UK and US have this crappy small boat, owner/operator mentality which is extremely dangerous, it’s all money and lax safety standards, and governments turn a blind eye.