Improving vessel equipment: evaluating fishermen-led safety design ideas in the Dungeness crab fleet

Oregon State University, Corvallis OR

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Abstract The West Coast Dungeness crab fleet is one of the highest-risk commercial fishing fleets in the United States. It is an important commodity for the region and the fleet?s safety must be improved given the high prevalence and incident rate of both fatal and non-fatal injuries. While previous and ongoing studies have focused on fatality prevention, our recent NIOSH-funded study (FLIPP ? Fishermen Led Injury Prevention Program) indicates the significance of nonfatal injuries among this commercial fishing fleet. FLIPP showed that the majority of limiting nonfatal injuries (88%) occurred with deckhands and that the most common injuries were sprains and strains (36%). Most of these injuries were associated with handling, hauling, and setting crab pots (72%), which poses forceful exertions, awkward posture, and repetitive motions. To date, there has been lack of scientific study to objectively assess this task of crab harvesting. Therefore, our proposed research study will focus on these physical exposures, their related injury outcomes (musculoskeletal disorders, fall-related injuries and fatalities), and an engineering intervention. This project primarily focuses on intervention testing but is designed to create and develop a dissemination for implementation. After the successful completion of this study, our expected outcomes include objective biomechanical assessments to estimate injury risks on commercial crab harvesting tasks and a research-to-practice approach for hazard identification and mediation in the commercial fishing industry. As the intervention being evaluated in this study is led by fishermen, its implementation and broader adoption is expected to be effective.