Commercial fishing is one of the nation’s deadliest jobs, with an average of 58 fatalities a year, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis has found.
Slightly more than half of the deaths during the period tracked, from 1992 to 2008, stemmed from a “vessel disaster,” when a ship sank, capsized or caught on fire, with severe weather generally being a factor.
Nearly one-third of the workers killed fell overboard. None of those victims was wearing a life jacket, and most were alone on deck when they fell. There is no federal requirement for crew members to wear life jackets or other flotation devices.
Shellfish fishermen accounted for the largest portion of the deaths, with nearly half of the fatalities.
The CDC said past efforts, including safety regulations and training, to reduce the number of deaths in the industry have paid off, and that death rates have declined gradually since 1992. Still, the agency said more action needs to be taken to prevent falls and to encourage the use of life jackets, and it called for focusing attention on two high-risk fisheries in the Northeast, and another off the West Coast.
The death toll in commercial fishing equates to 128 deaths for every 100,000 workers, a level that is 32 times higher than the average across U.S. occupations. The CDC cautioned, however, that comparisons with other industries might be imprecise because different techniques were used to determine the overall number of workers in the commercial fishing industry.
