In commercial fishing, lives have been lost and lifejackets not worn. The lives lost impact coastal communities and families. Vessel disasters and falls overboard account for most deaths. From 2000-2018 there were ninety-three fishermen who died in Washington and Oregon. Only five were wearing a lifejacket and of them, three were not wearing it properly. Weather decisions, navigation, vessel stability, as well as other prevention strategies are important to reduce vessel disasters. Well-maintained and functional safety gear including a lifejacket, are also essential to fully reduce the burden of injury and death.
The success of the “Lifejackets for Lobstermen” program in New England led to this project to fill a regional need. We expect advances in lifejacket design to address some of the barriers fishermen have to wearing them while working (comfort, for example) and to improve the flotation and survivability when worn. We aim to investigate:
- If a regional mobile program with lifejacket education, trials, and discounts will promote the purchase and use of lifejackets of fishermen.
- If measuring regional adaptations to the program can identify guidelines to help other health and safety programs transfer well to help other populations.
We will collect fishermen’s views and experiences related to vessel safety including the use of lifejackets. We will use the fishermen’s input to adapt a region-specific program that we will operate to sell lifejackets to fishermen. We will compare our adapted program with the original one in New England. Our program to bring education and access to lifejackets direct to the ports has the potential to shift the safety and health practices of fishermen. With the success of the program, we can prove that commercial fishing does not have to be one of the most dangerous occupations.
Progress to Date
We completed our goal of 50 interviews with commercial fishing stakeholders who were asked about their perceptions of lifejackets and for ideas related to the 4 P’s of social marketing- Price, Product, Place, and Promotion. Common responses included the following: 1) A variety of brands/designs with good potential for commercial fishermen exist or have existed. 2) What prevents fishermen from wearing one includes entanglement, bulk, feeling encumbered, feeling invincible so not needed, and cost. 3) What would make a fishermen consider wearing one included wearability/fit, knowledge, stormy/rough conditions and nighttime, captain enacting a policy, and witness of someone going overboard.
We collected 79 out of our goal of 100 fishermen state of change surveys from commercial fishermen in Oregon (n=32) and Washington (n=47). Data analysis is ongoing and will help us understand barriers to and perceptions of lifejacket use in the Pacific Northwest among commercial fishermen.
We created a database to track modifications as we develop our FLIPP for Lifejacket program based on input from stakeholders and fishermen. We also collaborated with the PNASH Outreach Core to draft graphics and materials to support the mobile program.
This Fall 2023, we hosted the first PFD advisory board meeting during the Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle, WA. This was a joint meeting with NEC’s PFD advisory board.
Next Steps
This year we begin trialing 7 different styles of lifejackets with 40 fishermen in Oregon and Washington. Fishermen will wear a lifejacket assigned to them for a month while fishing and report back with their impressions. We will also be completing our remaining stakeholder and fishermen interviews and analyzing the data. We will continue to work with NEC to track modifications we are making based as finalize our plans for what the FLIPP for Lifejackets program is as well as how it will be implemented. These modifications will be based on stakeholder input and regional needs and will be compared with the approach used in New England with NEC. This will help us design and implement our mobile lifejacket program, tailored to the Pacific Northwest.
Partners and Collaborators
- Lifejacket manufacturers such as Mustang, Spinlock, Kent, Stormline, Datrex, and Hero
- Marine retailers, like Englund Marine and Fisheries Supply
- Fishermen’s support associations like the Deep Sea Fishermen Union, Mid Water Trawlers Cooperative, and Newport Fishermen’s Wives
- Tribal groups such as the Columbia River Inter Tribal Fisheries Commission
- Government agencies such as United States Coast Guard District 13, and both the Oregon and Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife
- Northeast Center for Occupational Health and Safety
Principal Investigator: Laurel Kincl, Associate Professor, Associate Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs, Oregon State University
NIOSH Funding Period 2022-2027