BACKGROUND: Commercial fishing continues to be one of the most hazardous occupations in the United States. However, published information on the burden and characteristics of fatal injuries has not been updated since 2009. Additionally, workforce estimates for commercial fishing are difficult to obtain. Those used in previous fatality rate calculations were not formulated using a standard method, limiting the comparison of rates outside of the studies in which they were published.
METHODS: The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) developed the Commercial Fishing Incident Database (CFID) to collect data describing all fatal injuries in the US fishing industry. Cases of work-related fatalities during 2000—2014 were extracted from CFID. A descriptive analysis was completed to explore the patterns and characteristics of fatalities, with an emphasis on those that occurred during 2010—2014. A revised formula to estimate the full-time equivalent (FTE) worker denominator was developed and employed, using standard work hours instead of weighted fishing seasons; fatality rates were then calculated for select fleets.
RESULTS: During 2010—2014, 188 commercial fishing fatalities occurred in the US. Vessel disasters (80, 43%) and falls overboard (57, 30%) resulted in the most fatalities. The East Coast had the most deaths (60, 32%), followed by the Gulf of Mexico (49, 26%), Alaska (45, 24%), and the West Coast (30, 16%). The highest fatality rates were observed in the Atlantic herring trawl fleet (758/100,000 FTEs) and the Alaska dive harvest fleet (641/100,000 FTEs). The average fatality rate (among fleets where a rate was calculated) was 42 times higher than the rate for all US workers. Since 2000, the overall number of fatalities decreased and the distribution of fatalities among incident types changed in most regions. While declines in fatality rates have been observed in some fleets (e.g., Atlantic scallop, Bering Sea crab), several other fleets experienced increased or persistently elevated rates over time, including Alaska salmon set gillnet and Atlantic squid.
CONCLUSIONS: The development of a national surveillance system featuring detailed fatality data has allowed for the identification of risk factors and trends in this high-risk occupation. Safety interventions can be prioritized to address fleet- and region-specific hazards. The revised FTE formula presented in this study now includes all exposure time of cases in the denominator and allows for valid fatality rate comparisons to those outside of commercial fishing. These approaches can be used to improve worker safety in other industries and occupations.