Commercial Fishing Safety Training

Details

• Personal Author:
  Dzugan J
• Description:
  For many years the U.S. Department of Labor has noted commercial fishing as having the highest fatality rate of any occupation in the U.S. Before 1988 when fishing vessel safety regulations were passed, Alaska had over 40 fatalities a year at times, the highest number of fatalities of any region in the U.S. The Fishing Vessel Safety Act of 1988 (the Safety Act) required many fishing vessels to conduct monthly emergency drills led by a trained Drill Conductor (DC). The non-profit Alaska Marine Safety Education Association (AMSEA), had been conducting Marine Safety Instructor Training (MSIT) fishing classes since 1985. AMSEA trains MSITs in many ports and supplies these instructors with curriculum, teaching aids, supplies and other means of support. This network did not exist anywhere else in the U.S. When the Safety Act was passed and required DC training, AMSEA trained instructors were ready to help fishermen meet the safety training requirements of the Safety Act. Not only was Alaska better prepared to meet these training requirements and deliver it to remote fishing villages, but Alaska has also benefitted from the largest drop in fishing fatalities in the U.S. In addition, this project has allowed AMSEA to deliver this training to many other parts of the nation that lacked training infrastructure. The importance of training fishermen in survival equipment use and emergency procedures has been noted in numerous Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) casualty reports, as well as in survivor interviews AMSEA and NIOSH has conducted. Originally there was no DC training refresher requirement. A NIOSH APRO research paper noted that the protective benefits of training fade after 5 years from initial date of training. A DC skills retention study was conducted by AMSEA and the University of Washington to demonstrate the amount of "skills decay" over a period of 1, 3 and 21 months and found it significant. The USCG has also proposed making refresher training a requirement. More emphasis has now been placed on DC refresher training in this project period and 515 fishermen have had refresher training. In addition 196 new MSITs have been trained who support and/or deliver DC training. The impact of this project has been in part responsible for Alaska fatalities falling to 11 fatalities per year during this project period. This is the lowest number of fatalities since 1990, when the NIOSH APRO started keeping records. The five years of this project period has also seen the largest number of DC's instructed in any five year period- 3,455. This project has continued and expanded MSIT and DC training for fishermen throughout Alaska and with more frequency across the U.S. Most fishermen trained as DCs in the U.S. have been trained due to the resources allowed by this project. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Disaster Planning Emergencies Hunting Occupational Health Risk Assessment Safety Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Emergency Preparedness Fishing Industry Information Dissemination Injury Prevention Marine Workers Risk Management Safety Education Safety Programs Training Grants
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  Alaska ; OSHA Region 10
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-15
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20053243
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2019-100178
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, T15-OH-008631, 2011 Jul; :1-15
• Email:
  director@amsea.org
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2011
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Performing Organization:
  Alaska Marine Safety Education Association, Sitka, Alaska
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7aebf0349abaea1a0edb71749adbf70f563f6999d957fef36a68d3612624e9552489ec2fec4138d27135b4d1e613a1fe76e03e12deb14247e764de044b83eaa9
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/218759/cdc_218759_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 483.05 KB ]