Reflections on Fishing OHS

Research and its Relevance for OFI

Module N Barbara Neis, Bryan Davis, Joel Finnis and James

Shewmake** This presentation includes slides taken from related presentations to IFISH

5, St. John’s, NL.

1. OHS on Ships and Fishing Vessels

2. Learning from History: Spatial Shifts and Fishing Safety 3. Picking up the Pieces

o Stability

o Fishing vessel design and noise-induced hearing loss

o Weather and fishing safety

4. Direct and indirect influences of regulations on fishing Safety:

5. Why we need strong, multidisciplinary research teams

6. The benefits of a community engaged approach

7. The need for health (including OHS) impact assessments?

Presentation Overview

On an industry basis, fishing is one of the most hazardous industries in the world:

Hazardous working conditions and environments

Demanding work activities and schedules

Small-sized enterprises

Vulnerable workforce

Regulatory challenges

On an individual basis, risk for fishing accidents is cumulative

"… an emergency at sea is like a snowball: it grows. At first one or two

things go wrong and you can probably cope with those. Suddenly,

however, you've got four or five things to deal with at once, and unless

the crew is well prepared and trained, disaster strikes."

North Pacific Fishing Vessel Owner's Association: Vessel Safety Manual, 1997

Shipping and Fishing

1. The opening Arctic means expanding fisheries too…o Arctic Network for Fisheries and Aquaculture OHS

2. Both happen in mobile and moving workplaces

3. These affect both marine safety and seafarer/harvester OHS

4. Fisheries (like shipping) = diverse sectors, activities, social organization and hazardso Small open boats/subsistence fisheries

o < 45-65 foot could be going out 200 nm

o Trawlers and factory trawlers

Mobile Workplaces Past spatial/species shifts and fishing safety

• Evidence of shifts in spatial distributions of Search and Rescue incidents

• Effects of fishery restructuring towards crab harvesting

• Interviews documented context and consequences for havesters

Newfoundland Fishing Incidents: Perspectives and Analysis. R. Pelot et al. 2000

1989

1991

1993

1995

1997

1999

2001

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

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Cla

ims

Year

Worker Compensation Claims by Industrial Code

704: Factory Freezer Trawlers 701: Offshore Harvesting 703: Inshore Fishing

S. Bornstein, et al. 2006.

We are still picking up the pieces from post-moratorium

fleet construction and policy

o Like all mobile workplaces FVs have engines – essential

to marine safety – potential hazards including vibration

and noise

o Post 1994 NL fleet design did not take the risk of

noise-induced hearing loss into account

o L. Moro and others are working on this (Burella et al.

2018).

Moving workplaces

o Because fishing vessels move – there are stability risks

o Stability is affected by design and operator/crew actions

(dynamic stability)

o Post 1994 fleets were designed to maximize capacity versus

stability/fuel efficiency

o Davis et al. (2018) seeking to reduce the risk of capsizing

caused by operator decisions and lack of knowledge

o But: stable vessels bounce around more – less likely to sink

but less safe as work platforms.

o More research on stability than on work on moving

platforms?

Reducing Fishing Vessel Capsizing in Newfoundland and

Labrador

Bryan Davis, M.Eng Student

Supervisors:

Dr. Bruce Colbourne

Dr. David Molyneux

o Spatial shifts also affect fit between vessel

design, equipment, knowledge, SAR and

weather

o Marine weather = key contributor to

vessel losses, fatalities, injuries…

a) What are the key weather-related hazards?

b) How will they change with shift to Arctic?

c) With what impact on who?

Marine weather and fishing safety research program extended into OFI:

1. Literature review

2. Large-scale, longitudinal weather, fishing traffic and Search and Rescue Incident analysis (quantitative) – Pelot/Rezae/Finnis/Shewmake

3. Qualitative fishermen’s knowledge and weather study - Shewmake

4. Qualitative (roundtable/interviews) forecasting production and stakeholder needs study (Finnis and Neis)

1. Larger-scale weather-related incidents can contribute to investigations & improvements in forecasting

2. Weather-related hazards often poorly defined: a) “worst situations of weather” (Jensen 1997)

b) “severe weather conditions” (Schilling 1993)

c) “extreme weather” (Matheson et al. 2001)

d) “heavy seas” (Noorish and Cryer 2004)

e) “adverse weather” (Roberts 2004)

f) “heavy weather” (Lucas and Lincoln 2007)

Systematic assessments of relationship

weather-related hazards and FS relatively

recent and rare?

Wu et al (2009) argue:

“There is a long history of studying the

relationship between weather and maritime

activities” (pg. 985)

Wu et al. (2005, 2009) take weather apart…

o Use: SAR incident data + weather data +

traffic data

o Explore: relationship between incidents

and 6 weather factors: wave height, SST,

air temp; ice concentration; fog presence;

ppt

o Rezaee et al. (2016 a,b,c) start to take

‘fishing’ apart – what weather hazards

contribute most to risk, for what fisheries?

o Roberts (2010) starts to look at weather

and fishing activities/tasks; see also Lucas

and Lincoln (2007) and others

But:

1. Fishing safety researchers rarely systematically assess weather-related hazards

2. Marine weather researchers = limited data/knowledge about fishing activities/processes

3. Fishing injury analyses = limited analysis of weather --- work on moving platforms literature?

4. Research gaps: weather, safety and…a) forecasting?

b) harbour-related injuries/fatalities? (Jackson et al. )

c) gear entanglement? STF? noise and communication? fatigue?

d) ports of refuge?

e) fisheries management?

f) no conceptual framework for understanding FVS and weather (Neis et al. 2018)

Marine Forecast Production & Application in Atlantic CanadaJoel Finnis, Barb Neis, Marilyn Koitnurm, Olivia Vila, Mihai SarbauMemorial University of Newfoundland(Roundtable report and interviews)

Early Lessons:

• Forecaster/harvester processes ‘rhyme’

• Forecasters’ concern about giving too much information/confusing w/uncertainty is likely unfounded

• Shared concerns harvesters/forecasters w/current spatial limits

• Potential for collaboration between meteorologists & harvesters

• Sharing information

• Observations to meteorologists

• Enhanced web offerings

• Redrawing forecast zones

• Devon Telford (2018), EC forecaster designed a map that would better need the needs of fish harvesters

Fig. 1.

FISHING VESSEL DESIGN,

CONSTRUCTION, STABILITY

FISHING TECHNOLOGY

DESIGN FISHING

OPERATIONS AND HANDLING

COMMUNICATIONS

SAFETY

EQUIPMENT

TRAINING

SEARCH AND RESCUE

FISHERIES INFRASTRUCTURE

INJURY

COMPENSATION

FISHING ECONOMICS

INSURANCE

TARGET SPECIES

FISHING LOCATION

FISHERIES

MANAGEMENT

BIOLOGICAL

ENVIRONMENT

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT

OF WORK

Interactive effects on fishing occupational

health and safety

REGULATIONS WITH DIRECT IIMPACTS ON SAFETY

REGULATIONS WITH INDIRECT

IIMPACTS ON SAFETY

Windle et al. 2008

Regulations can interact with many things to

directly and indirectly affect fishing safety

The view from the deck

These complex interactions cascade downwards onto the deck of vessels to affect who is working, with what training, under what conditions, when, where, what they are doing, hazards and effects

Therefore we MUST

a) make the best use possible of existing datasets and push for improvements in those data and improved access as we deepen our knowledge of this complex, under-studied area

b) learn/communicate across sectors such as shipping and fishing

c) assess regulatory regimes and decision-making processes from the standpoint of safety

d) integrate into this work the knowledge, perspectives and concerns of the people on the ground and their representatives (the view from the deck/community/company

Multidisciplinary/community-engaged work is essential

References

Burella, G., L. Moro and B. Neis. 2018. Noise exposure of fish harvesters in Newfoundland and Labrador. International Fishing Industry Safety and Health 5 Conference, Memorial University, St. John’s, June 10-13th

Davis, B., B. Colbourne and D. Molyneux. 2018. Reducing Fishing Vessel Capsizing in Newfoundland and Labrador. International Fishing Industry Safety and Health 5 Conference, Memorial University, St. John’s, June 10-13th

Finnis, J. B. Neis, M. Koitnurm, O. Vila and M. Sarbau. 2018. Marine forecast production and application in Atlantic Canada. American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting. New Orleans, April 10-14.

Neis, B., J. Shewmake and J. Finnis. 2018. Understanding weather and fishing safety. International Fishing Industry Safety and Health 5 Conference, Memorial University, St. John’s, June 10-13th

Pelot, R.P., Buckrell, M., Zhu, H. "Newfoundland Fishing Incidents: Perspectives and Analysis", MARIN Report #2000-01, Dept. of Industrial Eng., Dalhousie Univ., August 2000.

Bornstein, S., B. Neis, M. Murray, D. Bass, M. Windle, M. Binkley, N. Power, S. Brennan 2006. SafeCatch Final Report. Ottawa: Search and Rescue Secretariat, New Initiatives Fund. https://www.mun.ca/safetynet/library/Fishery1/SafeCatch_Final_Report.pdf

Windle, M. J. S., B. Neis, S. Bornstein, M. Binkley and P. Navarro. 2008. Fishing occupational health and safety: a comparison of regulatory regimes and safety outcomes in six countries. Marine Policy, 32, pp. 701-710.

Thanks for Your Interest

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Module I and M, OFI