Occupational Fatalities in the United States Commercial Fishing Industry, 2000–2009

Abstract

The occupational fatality rate among commercial fishermen decreased in the United States during 1992-2008; however, commercial fishing continues to be one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States, with an average annual fatality rate of 129 deaths per 100,000 fishermen in 2008. By contrast, the average annual occupational fatality rate among all US workers during the same period was four deaths per 100,000 workers. During the 1990s, numerous safety interventions were developed for Alaska fisheries that resulted in a significant decline in the state's commercial fishing fatality rate. In 2007, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) expanded surveillance of commercial fishing fatalities to the rest of the United States. The purpose of this report is to identify the hazards and risk factors for all causes of occupational mortality in the US commercial fishing industry, and to explore how those hazards and risk factors differ among fisheries and locations. During 2000-2009, 504 commercial fishing fatalities occurred in the United States. Most (261, 52%) occurred following a vessel disaster (defined as a sinking, capsizing, or other event in which the crew was forced to abandon ship) or a fall overboard (155, 31%). Fatalities occurred in Alaska (133, 26%), Northeast (124, 25%), Gulf of Mexico (116, 23%), West Coast (83, 16%), and the Mid- and South Atlantic (41, 8%) regions. Fatalities occurred most commonly while fishing for shellfish (226, 47%), groundfish (144, 30%) and pelagic fish (97, 20%). Average annual fatality rates were calculated for selected fisheries. The Northeast multispecies groundfish fleet had the highest average annual fatality rate (600 deaths per 100,000 full-time equivalent [FTE] fishermen) followed by the Atlantic scallop fleet (425 deaths per 100,000 FTE fishermen) and the West Coast Dungeness crab fleet (310 deaths per 100,000 FTE fishermen). To reduce fatalities among fishermen at greatest risk, additional prevention measures tailored to specific high-risk fisheries should be considered.

The effect of rights-based fisheries management on risk taking and fishing safety

“…Fishing safety policies generally address one of two objectives: reducing the probability of death or injury in the event of an accident or reducing the probability of accidents. Limited empirical evidence suggests that regional fishing safety policy in the United States has been marginally effective in improving on the first objective (10,31). Most policy intended to reduce risk exposure, however, tends to attempt to tell fishermen how to fish, advice that is poorly received in such an adventurous and fiercely independent lot.…”

“…Fishermen make many choices that affect their exposure to risk, but one of the most significant factors that commercial fishermen face is weather (29,30). Severe weather conditions contributed to 61% of fatal vessel accidents in the United States from 2000 to 2009 (31) and 80% of fatal accidents on the US West Coast for the same time period (30). The propensity to fish in poor weather conditions is a proxy for risk exposure.…”

Gulf of Mexico Seafood Harvesters: Part 1. Occupational Injury and Fatigue Risk Factors

“…As described in the Introduction, Lincoln and Lucas reported in July and October of 2010 on 116 commercial fishing fatalities in the GoM for the years 2000-2009 [4,20,21]. Lincoln and Lucas and Syron et al summarized circumstances for 165 GoM vessel-related fatalities through 2014 as shown in Figure 3 [4,5].…”

Mortality from accidents, disease, suicide and homicide in the British fishing industry from 1900 to 2010

“…Previous studies have reported on trends in mortality from fatal accidents in fishing fleets from countries including Alaska, Britain, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Poland and the United States, mostly during the last 30 or 40 years [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Reports on the Alaskan, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish (trawler) and United States fishing fleets have reported large or moderate reductions over time in fatal accident rates while studies of Danish, British and Polish (small-scale) fishing have reported little or no improvement.…”