Commercial Fishing Deaths --- United States, 2000--2009

Commercial Fishing Deaths --- United States, 2000--2009
Weekly
July 16, 2010 / 59(27);842-845


Commercial fishing is one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States (1). During 1992--2008, an annual average of 58 reported deaths occurred (128 deaths per 100,000 workers) (1), compared with an average of 5,894 deaths (four per 100,000 workers) among all U.S. workers. During the 1990s, safety interventions addressing specific hazards identified in Alaska resulted in a significant decline in the state's commercial fishing fatality rate (2). During 2007--2010, CDC expanded surveillance of commercial fishing fatalities to the rest of the country's fishing areas. To review the hazards and risk factors for occupational mortality in the U.S. commercial fishing industry, and to explore how hazards and risk factors differ among fisheries and locations, CDC collected and analyzed data on each fatality reported during 2000--2009. This report summarizes the results, which showed that, among the 504 U.S. commercial fishing deaths, the majority occurred after a vessel disaster (261 deaths, 52%) or a fall overboard (155 deaths, 31%). By region, 133 (26%) deaths occurred off the coast of Alaska, 124 (25%) in the Northeast, 116 (23%) in the Gulf of Mexico, 83 (16%) off the West Coast, and 41 (8%) in the Mid- and South Atlantic. Type of fishing was known in 478 deaths; shellfish (226, 47%) was the most common, followed by groundfish (144, 30%) and pelagic fish (97, 20%). To reduce fatalities in this industry, additional prevention measures tailored to specific high-risk fisheries and focusing on prevention of vessel disasters and falls overboard are needed.

CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health developed the Commercial Fishing Incident Database (CFID) in 2007 to collect data on deaths in the U.S. commercial fishing industry and to identify high-risk fisheries.* For CFID, a fatality case is defined as a fatal occupational traumatic injury in the commercial fishing industry reported anywhere in the United States. Only cases that met the criteria for an occupational fatality using established guidelines for injury at work are included (3). CDC collects data for CFID from multiple sources in each state, including reports from the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), local law enforcement agencies, and local media; death certificates; and state-based occupational fatality surveillance programs. CDC accesses these source documents through agreements with the various agencies that produce them. Causes of death are collected from either death certificates or from investigative reports, and are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision.

Fatality rates were calculated for specific fisheries using estimates of the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees working in each fishery for each year during 2000--2009. FTE estimates were generated using the number of vessels participating in a fishery, the number of days at sea, and the average number of crew members onboard each vessel. To calculate the rate, the total number of fatalities for the 10-year period was divided by the total annual FTEs for the period. For certain fisheries, no estimate for the number of FTEs could be generated because of a lack of data regarding vessels and days at sea. For those fisheries, fatal incidents† were included in the descriptive statistics but not in rate calculations. Missing data were excluded from percentage calculations.

During 2000--2009, 504 commercial fishing deaths occurred in the United States (Figure). The Alaska region had the highest number of deaths (133, 26%), followed by the Northeast (124, 25%), the Gulf of Mexico (116, 23%), West Coast (83, 16%), and the Mid- and South Atlantic (41, 8%). A total of 491 (97%) of the decedents were male; the mean age was 41 years (range: 10--86 years).

Of the total number of deaths, 261 (52%) occurred after a vessel disaster,§ 155 occurred when a person fell overboard (31%), and 51 (10%) resulted from an injury onboard. The remaining 37 (7%) deaths occurred while diving or on shore. The 261 deaths that resulted from a vessel disaster occurred in 148 separate vessel disaster incidents (Table 1). Of these incidents with known causes, 37 (28%) were initiated by flooding, 24 (18%) by vessel instability, and 23 (18%) by being struck by a large wave. Severe weather conditions contributed to 61% of the 148 fatal vessel disasters. Among the 155 crew members who died from falling overboard, none of them were wearing a personal flotation device (PFD). Of falls overboard with known causes, 43 (33%) were caused by trips or slips, 34 (26%) by losing balance, and 21 (16%) by gear entanglement (Table 1). In addition, the majority of persons (82, 53%) who died when they fell overboard were alone on the deck.

Of total deaths with known fishery type, 226 (47%) occurred while the worker was fishing for shellfish, 144 (30%) while fishing for groundfish, and 97 (20%) while fishing for pelagic fish. The shellfish fisheries with the highest number of deaths by incident type included the Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery with 29 fatalities from falls overboard; the Atlantic scallop fishery with 27 deaths resulting from nine vessel disasters attributed to instability, collisions, or snagging gear; and the West Coast Dungeness crab fishery with 21 deaths resulting from 10 vessel disasters attributed to crossing a river bar, vessel instability, or being struck by a large wave. All of the vessel disasters in the West Coast Dungeness crab fishery occurred in severe weather.

Of those fisheries for which average annual fatality rates could be calculated, the Northeast multispecies groundfish fishery had the highest rate (600 deaths per 100,000 FTEs), followed by the Atlantic scallop fleet (including the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions) (425 deaths per 100,000 FTEs) and the West Coast Dungeness crab fleet (310 deaths per 100,000 FTEs) (Table 2). Other fishery-specific fatality rates were calculated for the Bering Sea Aleutian Island crab fleet (260 deaths per 100,000 FTEs), Alaska halibut (130 deaths per 100,000 FTEs), and Alaska salmon (115 deaths per 100,000 FTEs). The fisheries with the highest number of fatalities were Gulf of Mexico shrimp (55), Atlantic scallop (44), and Alaskan salmon (39) (Table 2).

Reported by
J Lincoln, PhD, D Lucas, MS, Alaska Pacific Regional Office, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, CDC.

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Commercial Fishing Deaths --- United States, 2000--2009