Engaging Stakeholders to Improve Commercial Fishing Safety

Details

• Personal Author:
  Levin J
• Description:
  The conduct of effective research in AgFF occupational safety and health requires mutual respect and trust between the study team and leaders and members of a target audience. This may be particularly true in the case of populations whose members are hard to reach, whose English proficiency is poor or non-existent, and/or whose cultural norms differ from those of the research team. The Southwest Center's project with Vietnamese commercial fishermen of the Gulf Coast demonstrates how stakeholder engagement is vital to ensuring that the research design and conduct are acceptable to the target audience, findings will be adopted by the target audience, and end users will provide feedback about the impact (i.e., evaluate the process and results). Initial interest in working with Gulf Coast shrimp fishermen was sparked during a session arranged and conducted in 2003 by Mr. Gilbert Gallardo, U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit (USCG-MSU) Commercial Fishing Vessel Safety Examiner for the Galveston, Texas, area. Among other duties, the Marine Safety Unit conducts vessel inspection, search and rescue, port safety, and investigates vessel and personnel casualties. Seven years ago, little was known about the worker population or factors contributing to injuries/fatalities among commercial fishermen along the Gulf Coast. An analysis of data made available by Mr. Mike White, USCG District 8 office in New Orleans, confirmed subsequent reports that this region experiences the second highest level of vessel loss and crew fatalities among commercial fishermen (Dickey & Ellis 2006). Opportunities for research were indicated. Over the next two years USCG-MSU Galveston took the lead in identifying respected shrimp boat captains, marine supply owners, and other fishing community leaders. USCG-MSU representatives worked with the research team to organize a series of meetings with these stakeholders and with USCG-MSU personnel from New Orleans to Corpus Christi. It became apparent that the most important target audience would be Vietnamese shrimp fishermen. A survey was developed and administered in Vietnamese to validate worker demographics, work practices, perception of risk, and opportunities for intervention. Experienced Vietnamese fishermen and USCG-MSU helped the research team to develop a safety training program and materials in Vietnamese that responded to the stakeholders' priority requests. The initial training in Galveston was so well-received the USCG-MSU invited the team to replicate the program in other commercial shrimping communities in Louisiana and Texas. As a result of the strong relationships established by engaging workers and USCG-MSU throughout, the project expanded geographically with community-based participation to develop and test safety interventions. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Disaster Planning Emergencies Hunting Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety
• Keywords:
  Emergency Preparedness Fishing Industry Injuries Injury Prevention Intervention Occupational Safety Partnership Risk Factors
• Publisher:
  Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Newsletter
• Place as Subject:
  Kentucky ; Louisiana ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 6 ; Texas
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  4-5
• Volume:
  5
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20057310
• Citation:
  AgConnections. Lexington, KY: Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention, 2010 Summer; 5(2):4-5
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2010
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Performing Organization:
  University of Texas Health Center at Tyler
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20010930
• Source Full Name:
  AgConnections
• End Date:
  20270929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:44c52225f06b8a1c3ffba56b51e71ed91f9f00308d21c260551acacf6ce4e5cd85ee3786f9c1b966f6e8ccd94f72868edb22bc1551934b4910421891f5e71104
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/214702/cdc_214702_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 587.21 KB ]