3 Compensation and Working Conditions Summer 1998

Fishing for a Living

is Dangerous Work

Fishing has consistently ranked as the most deadly occupation

since 1992, when BLS started publishing fatality rates by

occupation. Workers in this occupation face unique

life-threatening hazards—vessel casualties, falling overboard,

and diving incidents.

BY DINO DRUDI

Dino Drudi is an economist in the Office of Safety,

Health and Working Conditions, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Telephone: (202) 606-6175

E-mail: Drudi_D@bls.gov

Each year during the 19th century, Gloucester, Massachusetts typically lost to the sea

about 200 men employed in fishing–4

percent of the town’s population.

Since 1650, the sea has claimed an estimated 10,000 Gloucester residents.

Sometimes a storm would hit the

Grand Banks and half a dozen fishing

ships would go down—100 men lost

overnight. On more than one occasion, Newfoundlanders awoke to find

their beaches strewn with the stormtossed corpses of those who toiled on

New England fishing boats.1

While fishing, like almost all other

occupations, has become less dangerous in recent years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), since its

inception in 1992, has reported fishers as the single most deadly occupation.2

 Persons engaged in this work

typically face a risk of suffering a fatal job injury 20 to 30 times greater

than the risk for all occupations. For

the years 1992 through 1996, the most

recent year for which data are available, there were between 50 and 100

fishing fatalities annually. This translates into 140 fatalities per 100,000

workers engaged in the occupation for

the 5-year period. (See table 1.) By

contrast, the fatality rate for all occupations during this same period was 5

per 100,000.

Although in the 19th century more

than 1 out of 25 Gloucester fishermen

were killed on the job each year, for

the period 1992 through 1996, the

number of commercial fishing workers killed on the job annually averaged

1 out of 716. This translates into 61

fatal injuries per 1,000 workers over a

45-year fishing work lifetime.3

This article, discusses fatal occupational injuries to fishers for the period 1992-96 and does not include any

analysis of their nonfatal occupational

injuries and illnesses.

Vessel casualties

Commercial fishing vessels often

travel a long way from their home

ports in search of ever-dwindling fish

stocks, and fish great distances from

shore. Perils to fishing vessels include

storms, which can produce “rogue

waves”—also known as “freak seas”

or “non-negotiable waves”—over 100

feet (30 meters) high, and fog which

hinders safe navigation.

Rogue waves often are several ordinary waves that get “in step” to form

veritable piles of water or they are leftover waves from earlier storms that

circumnavigate the globe and strike in

otherwise relatively calm seas. They
 Compensation and Working Conditions Summer 1998 4

have incredibly destructive power. To

illustrate, in 1973, a 12,000-ton ship

broke in half on her maiden voyage

after being struck by a rogue wave.

The following year, a 132,000-ton

tanker fell into a huge trough caused

by a rogue wave. A crew member remarked, “There was no sea in front of

the ship, only a hole....” The ship then

took an equally huge wave over her

bow which crumpled a 1-inch (21⁄2-

centimeter) thick steel plate, twisted

railroad-gauge I-beams into knots, and

tore off the entire bow bulb! Rogue

waves have the power to devastate a

typical fishing boat.4

Rogue waves are not the only ocean

peril that can sink or capsize ships.

Ships might, for example, strike a submerged rock or collide with another

vessel in the fog. Vessel casualties

were the leading cause of fishing fatalities and often involved multiple

deaths. From 1992 through 1996, half

of fishing fatalities—197 cases—involved vessel casualties, such as

sinkings, capsizings, or collisions.

(See table 2.) Often the bodies of the

deceased are never found, particularly

if they go down with the ship, wash

ashore in some remote place, or enter

the food chain of higher-level marine

life.

“Person overboard!”

It isn’t only rogue waves that are

capable of washing fishers overboard

or tilting the deck enough to cause

them to slip into the water. Lesser

waves also wash fishers overboard.

But wave action is not the only way a

fisher can go overboard, as the following accounts demonstrate:

A fisherman on board a 113-foot

(34-meter) crabbing vessel was

thrown overboard when a crab pot

line he was straddling suddenly

tightened.5

Baiting has all the glamour of a

factory shift and considerably more

of the danger. The line is spooled

on a big drum. It crosses diagonally

over the deck, passes through an

overhead block, and then bends

straight back toward the stern. A

steel ring guides it over the rail and

into the water. That’s where the

baiters stand. There’s a bait table

on top of the stern rail–basically a

wooden well with squid and mackerel [baitfish] in it–and a leader cart

on either side. The leader carts are

small drums spooled with hundreds

of lengths of seven-fathom line

called gangions. Each gangion has

a #10 hook at one end and a stainless steel snap on the other.... The

baiter reaches behind him and takes

a gangion from his back-up man,

who’s peeling them off the leader

cart one at a time. The baiter impales a squid or mackerel onto the

hook, snaps the gangion onto the

mainline, and throws the whole

thing over the side. The hook is

easily big enough to pass through a

man’s hand, and if it catches some

part of the baiter’s body or clothing, he goes over the side with it....

The crew’s looking the other way,

the hook’s got you, and suddenly

you’re down at the depth where

swordfish feed....6

Going overboard as a consequence

of slipping on a wet or icy deck, being

pulled overboard when lines wrap

around one’s legs, being washed overboard by a wave, pulled overboard by

a hook, or flung overboard by a line

suddenly tightening are examples of

incidents which are classified as “falls

from ship or boat.” These types of falls

accounted for 70 fatalities—almost

one-fifth of the total during the 1992-

96 period. (See table 2.)

Fishers who go overboard into very

cold water are at risk of hypothermia—

the cooling of the core body temperature. This condition causes shivering,

loss of muscle coordination, unconsciousness, and even death.7 Unless

wearing a survival suit or a personal

flotation device (life jacket), a fisher

could not withstand more than 6 or 7

minutes immersed in very cold water

before succumbing.

Diving–an emerging hazard

Diving fatalities are beginning to

be recognized as an emerging hazard

in the fishing industry.8 Sometimes

crewmembers with little formal diving training or experience are called

on to dive below water to untangle nets

or lines that have snagged on the ocean

floor or in the boat’s propellers. Even

experienced, certified scuba9 divers

hired to dive for sea cucumbers and

other aquatic life often face numerous

hazards such as adverse sea and

weather conditions,10 murky water,

unexpected shifts in underwater curTable 1. Fatal occupational injuries for fishing occupations, 1992-961

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 Total 1992-96

Number Rate Number Rate Number Rate Number Rate Number Rate Number Rate

Fishing occupations...................... 92 156 91 154 67 131 58 103 72 153 380 140

Captains and other officers ...... 20 – 12 – 10 – 7 – 6 – 55 –

Fishers ..................................... 72 141 79 154 57 136 51 113 66 178 325 144

1

 Rates represent the number of fatal occupational injuries per

100,000 employed workers and were calculated as: (N/W) x 100,000,

where

N = the number of work injury fatalities to workers 16

years of age and older.

W = the number of employed workers 16 years of age

and older.

100,000 = per 100,000 workers.

Employment figures are annual average estimates of employed

civilians 16 years of age and older from the Current Population Survey,

1992-96. 2 Based on the 1990 Occupational Classification System developed by the Bureau of the Census. Fishing occupations is an

aggregate of fishers, and captains and other fishing vessel officers. 3 Dashes indicate rates for captains and other fishing vessel

officers do not meet publication standards.

3

Occupation2
5 Compensation and Working Conditions Summer 1998

rents, entanglement of air lines, scuba

equipment malfunction, decompression problems, and encounters with

dangerous marine life.11 The 60

drownings that occurred during 1992-

96 accounted for one-sixth of fishing

fatalities. (See table 2.) Most of these

drownings involved diving activities.

A variety of other hazards that tend

to be more typical of workplaces generally–such as electrocutions, being

caught in winches and other machinery, homicides, and aircraft crashes–

accounted for the remaining fishing fatalities.

Economic and demographic characteristics

Commercial fishing vessels travel

on long voyages far from shore in

search of ever-dwindling fish stocks.

These large boats, often capable of

hauling a catch weighing many tons,

and sometimes having on-board processing facilities, require a crew with

a wide range of specialized skills. As

a prerequisite, fishers must be in good

health, and possess physical strength

and coordination. They must also possess the mechanical aptitude to operate, maintain, and repair on-board

machinery and fishing gear, and the

perseverance to perform strenuous

outdoor work and endure long hours

at sea often under difficult conditions.12

Often the proceeds from the fish

catch are apportioned among the crew

based on the market price the catch

brings when landed in port—an elaborate kind of piecework pay scheme.

The pay can be quite rewarding—

$4,000 or more per month. Many of

the individuals employed in fishing,

such as college students taking fishing jobs during the summer to meet

high tuition bills,13 are highly motivated to face these risks and withstand

these rigors because the pay is so attractive. Others are highly motivated

because they find themselves unemployable in other lines of work and

they end up in fishing as a last resort,

while still others fall in love with fishing as a line of work and a way of

life.14 These factors may work in tandem to produce a workforce more motivated and able to push limits that

would dissuade or disable workers in

other industries.

Fishing in cold waters is inherently

riskier because of hypothermia.

Alaska, with one of the Nation’s smallest workforces, accounted for the largest number of fishing fatalities during

the 1992-96 period. (See table 3.)

Moreover, some specific Alaska fishing activities are particularly hazardous. For example, harvesting most

commercial crab species in Alaska

takes place during the winter when air

and water temperatures are colder;

high winds, snow, sleet, and ice are

more prevalent; daylight hours shorter;

and high seas are more common.15

Other cold-water States—such as

Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington,

and Maine—also had disproportionately high numbers of fishing fatalities.

Industry analysis suggests that persons engaged in commercial shellfishing are more at risk of dying on the

job than those engaged in commercial

finfishing.16 During 1992-96, shellfishing, with 160 fatalities, accounted

for one-third more deaths than

finfishing with 119 fatalities, despite

the fact that the shellfishing industry

employed only three-fifths as many

workers as the finfishing industry17

and the weight for the commercial

shellfish catch was less than one-sixth

that for finfish. The commercial dollar value of the shellfish catch, however, is nearly equal to that of the finfish catch, in part, as a consequence

of the greater risk involved in

shellfishing.18 In addition, there were

16 commercial fishing fatalities in the

miscellaneous marine products industry (sea cucumbers, sponges, seaweed,

Table 2. Fatal events or exposures for fishing occupations, 1992-96

Fatal event or exposure Number Percent

Vessel casualties .................................................. 197 52

Fall from ship or boat ............................................ 70 18

Drowning, submersion .......................................... 60 16

Other events or exposures ................................... 53 14

1

Sinkings and capsizings accounted for 154 of the 197 vessel casualties. The remaining 43

vessel casualties resulted from collisions, vessel explosions and fires, and all other water

vehicle incidents except falls from ship or boat.

Table 3. Fishing occupation1 fatalities by State, 1992-96

State Number Percent

 Total ................................................................. 380 100

Alaska .................................................................. 112 29

Massachusetts ..................................................... 32 8

Texas .................................................................... 31 8

Florida .................................................................. 26 7

Oregon ................................................................. 21 6

California .............................................................. 21 6

Washington .......................................................... 20 5

Louisiana .............................................................. 18 5

North Carolina ...................................................... 18 5

Maine ................................................................... 17 4

Hawaii .................................................................. 14 4

Other .................................................................... 50 13

1

 Includes fishers, captains, and other fishing vessel officers.

2

 These 50 fishing fatalities are distributed over the remaining 39 States and the District of

Columbia, and also include 7 fatalities occurring outside any State’s territorial waters. None of

these States accounted for more than 5 fishing fatalities.

1

2
 Compensation and Working Conditions Summer 1998 6

sea urchins, etc.), and 55 in general

commercial fishing. Miscellaneous

amusement and recreation services,

which includes fishing guides, accounted for 10 fatalities. The remainder were scattered over various industries.

While Current Population Survey

data show self-employed individuals

comprise at least three-fifths of employment in fishing occupations, they

accounted for just over a third of the

fatalities during this period. This may

be due to a variety of factors, such as

self-employed fishers being limited by

economies of scale to more familiar

local waters. Moreover, because some

types of fish can only be taken at certain times of the year, many self-employed fishers engage in fishing on a

part-time basis.

During 1992-96, fishing fatalities

tracked age group employment fairly

closely, except that the 25- to 34-yearold age group experienced a disproportionately high share of the fatalities, while the 55- to 64-year-old age

group experienced a slightly lower

share. Non-Hispanic persons from

racial categories other than white and

black—such as Asians, Pacific Islanders, American Indians, Eskimos, and

Aleuts—comprise 7 percent of fishing

employment, but at least 16 percent of

fishing fatalities.19

Conclusion

This article builds on the research

undertaken by the National Institute

for Occupational Safety and Health

(NIOSH), which has published several special studies, most of which

have focused on the fishing industry

in Alaska.20 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) data supplement the NIOSH studies and provide

information on hazards facing those

engaged in commercial fishing occupations throughout the United

States.

Because fish are believed to have

various dietary benefits, per capita fish

consumption in the United States has

increased by 20 percent over the past

two decades. Overall per capita fish

use–which includes both food consumption and industrial fish products

such as fishmeal and crushed oyster

shells–has increased 30 percent.21

Although the United States is still

a net importer of fish, exports of edible fish products have tripled in

weight and doubled in dollar value

during the past decade, while imports

have remained stable. During this

time, exports of industrial fish products increased nearly 60-fold to over

$5 billion, while the dollar value of

industrial fish product imports barely

doubled.22

Fishing employment has declined

from an estimated 59,000 in 1992 to

47,000 in 1996.23 This decline, which

has taken place in the face of an increased demand for fish, is a consequence mainly of the declining supply of fish due to overfishing. But, as

the demand for fish grows, and meeting that demand requires ever longer

voyages and greater efforts, these factors working in tandem have the potential to increase the hazards of fishing occupations and negate any fatality

decreases that stricter safety regulation

may have afforded. Indeed, in 1996,

when the CFOI all employment fatality rate reached its lowest level since

the program began, the rate for fishers jumped to 178 fatalities per

100,000 employment—the highest it

has been since the CFOI program began collecting data in 1992. In 1996,

the rate for fishing occupations, which

includes fishers, and captains and

other fishing vessel officers, reached

its highest level in 3 years.

Technical note

The lifetime risk for a specific industry or occupation was calculated

using an equation proposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 1995: WLTR = [1 - (1 –

R)y

] x 1,000 where: WLTR = working lifetime risk; R = probability of a

worker having a work-related fatal

injury in a given year; 1 – R = probability of a worker not having a workrelated fatal injury in a given year; y =

years of exposure to work-related injury; (1 – R)y

 = probability of surviving y years without a work-related fatal injury; 1 – (1 – R)y

 = probability of

having a work-related fatal injury over

y years of employment.

In this study, y was set at 45 years.

This assumes workers are exposed to

work-related injury hazards for approximately 45 years, starting at age

20.

The formula is then multiplied by

1,000 to derive the number of fatal occupational injuries per 1,000 workers,

as follows:

R = 0.0014 = 140 fatalities per

100,000 employment = a 0.14

percent probability of a worker

having a work-related fatal

injury in a given year;

1 – R = 1 – 0.0014 = 0.9986 = a

99.86 percent probability of a

worker not having a fatal

occupational injury in a given

year;

(1 – R)45 = 0.998645 = 0.9389 = a

93.89 percent probability of

surviving 45 years without

having a work-related fatal

injury;

1 – (1 – R)45 = 1 – 0.9389 = 0.0611

= a 6.11 percent probability of

having a work-related fatal

injury over 45 years of employment.

While it is tempting to view the inverse of 0.0611 (1:16) as the probability a worker faces of suffering a fatal

occupational injury over a theoretical

45-year fishing career, because of such

factors as turnover, the risk should be

expressed on a per 1,000 worker basis, as follows:

[1 – (1 – R)45] x 1,000 = 0.0611 x

1,000 = 61 fatalities per 1,000

employment over a 45-year

period comprising a working

lifetime.
7 Compensation and Working Conditions Summer 1998

1

 Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm, W.W.

Norton, New York, 1997, pp. 44-45. 2

 For 1996, the occupation with the next highest rate is timber cutters at 157, followed by airplane pilots (88), structural metal workers (85),

and extractive occupations (67). 3

 For a good explanation of the methodology used to derive this statistic, see David E.

Fosbroke, Suzanne M. Kisner, and John R.

Myers, “Working Lifetime Risk of Occupational

Fatal Injury,” American Journal of Industrial

Medicine, Vol. 31, Wiley-Liss, Inc., 1997, pp.

460-61. See Technical note at the end of this

article. 4

 Junger, The Perfect Storm, pp. 114-15, 123,

150.5 NIOSH Alert: Request for Assistance in

Preventing Drownings of Commercial Fishermen, National Institute for Occupational Safety

and Health, Publication No. 94-107, April 1994,

p. 4.6

 Junger, The Perfect Storm, pp. 52, 70. 7

 NIOSH Alert: Request for Assistance, p. 2. 8

 Commercial Fishing Fatalities in Alaska:

Risk Factors and Prevention Strategies, National

Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Current Intelligence Bulletin 58, September 1997, p.

12. 9

 Scuba is an acronym for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. 10 Commercial Fishing Fatalities in Alaska,

p. 12. 11 Occupational Outlook Handbook, 1998-

—ENDNOTES—

99 Edition, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin

2500, January 1998, p. 417. 12 Ibid., pp. 416-18. 13 NIOSH Update: College Students May be

Risking Their Lives on Fishing Vessels: Working

in the Alaska Fishing Industry is one of the

Nation’s Most Hazardous Jobs, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Publication No. 94-111, April 1994. 14 For a fuller discussion, see Junger, ThePerfect Storm, pp. 15, 48-49. 15 Commercial Fishing Fatalities in Alaska,

pp. ix, 2. 16 Shellfish include cephalopods such as

squid, crustaceans such as lobster and shrimp,

and univalve and bivalve mollusks such as abalone and clams, whereas finfish–such as shark,

tuna, and salmon–are all vertebrates. Some of

the hazards confronting shellfishers are different

from those confronting finfishers. For example,

shellfishing for king crab is done using cages

called “pots”–some weighing over 700 pounds

(318 kilograms)–which are stored on the deck

where they might fall on someone, whereas

finfishers do not use pots. Many types of

finfishing, such as long-lining, however, make

use of numerous hooks, which can puncture and

pull a fisher overboard. 17 Industry employment figures are from the

Covered Employment and Wages (also known as

the ES-202) program. See the annual publication

Employment and Wages, Annual Averages, for

the years 1992 through 1996.

18 Fisheries of the United States, 1996, National Marine Fisheries Service, Current Fishery

Statistics No. 9600, July 1997, pp. iv, 10-13.

Weights for all fish are reported in round weight

(defined as weight of fish as taken from the water, the complete or full “live” weight when

caught), except for univalve and bivalve mollusks

which are reported in meat weight (excluding the

shell). 19 Employment data for race and age are derived from the Current Population Survey. 20 See Fosbroke, Kisner, and Meyers, "Working Lifetime Risk;" Richard D. Kennedy and Jennifer M. Lincoln, “Epidemiology of Fatal Injury

in the U.S. Commercial Fishing Industry,” Safety

and Health in Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, Government Institutes, Inc., Rockville,

Maryland, 1997, pp. 557-70; Patricia G.

Schnitzer, Deborah D. Landen, and Julie C.

Russell, “Occupational Injury Deaths in Alaska’s

Fishing Industry, 1980 through 1988,” American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 83, No. 5,

May 1993, pp. 685-88; NIOSH Alert: Request

for Assistance; Commercial Fishing Fatalities

in Alaska; NIOSH Update: College Students

May be Risking Their Lives. 21 Fisheries of the United States, pp. 125,

127.22 Ibid., pp. 98, 106. 23 Employment data are derived from various

sources including the Current Population Survey;

the Occupational Outlook Handbook, p. 417; and

CFOI.