Tuesday, January 9, 14:00 – 15:30, Red Room

Moderated by Derek Archer, with presentations by:

A personal floatation device (PFD) is the most critically important piece of personal protective equipment (PPE) for fishers who are at risk of entering the water because it helps prevent drowning. However, if the individual is lacking sufficient thermal protection when they enter cold water, it also becomes critically important that they are rescued as quickly as possible to reduce their exposure time. One of the most versatile and reliable methods available for alerting rescuers is a personal locator beacon (PLB)

While there have been improvements in wear-rates in places where PFD use is mandatory, it is still voluntary in most regions of Canada, including Newfoundland and Labrador (NL). Unfortunately, as evidenced by incident reports, many fishers choose not to use PFDs or PLBs. To improve the rate of PFD and PLB use by fishers in NL, it is critically important to understand why they choose to use or not use PFDs and PLBs and then focus on how to encourage fishers to regularly use PFDs and PLBs.

To encourage the use of PLBs by NL fishers the NL Fish Harvesting Coalition has launched an intervention which subsidizes the purchase of PLBs for fishers. To determine the effectiveness of the PLB intervention we are conducting a survey study. The survey will also be used to ascertain the usage rate, and barriers and incentives associated with PFD and PLB use. To assess the long-term effectiveness of the PLB intervention, we will conduct several time series check-ins with fishers over the three-years of the project. This will give us insight into how effective the PLB intervention has been over the long-term and whether similar approaches might work for other aspects of safety, such as the use of PFDs. Our paper will present our research design and any results collected to date.

Manoverboard (MOB) is now the main cause of fatalities in the UK fishing industry. Despite improvements in many areas of fishing safety, too many UK fishers remain ill-equipped and unprepared for MOB survival/recovery, and too few are modifying their vessels to mitigate the risk of MOB.

Mandatory sea survival training may be effective at the time, but with no requirement in the UK for refresher training it is not having the desired long-term impact on fishers’ attitudes and behaviours towards the danger of MOB.

Efforts to reduce the number of MOB fatalities in the UK have focused on the provision of funded safety equipment (PFDs and PLBs), the provision of funded voluntary refresher training and making the wearing of PFDs mandatory in 2019.

These interventions have not been universally successful in changing fishers’ attitudes and behaviours towards MOB, as evidenced by the fact that in 2021 six of the ten UK fisher deaths were classified as fatal MOBs and only two were known to be wearing a PFD at the time.

In 2020, Seafish and the RNLI started delivering a voluntary programme of MOB Awareness events for fishers, putting fishers through a challenging and realistic MOB experience, to help them better appreciate the danger and fully appreciate the need for wearing a PFD. Funded by the UK’s Maritime & Coastguard Agency, 43 events have been delivered at environmental pools across the UK, with 511 fishers participating.

In this presentation, Simon and Frankie will explain the aim of the programme and describe what happens during an MOB Awareness event, reflect on the observed impact the events have on participants, share some of the post-event feedback received from participants and consider how effective the events have been at changing fishers’ behaviours.

Artisanal fishing communities in Tanzania experience high drowning rates but the uptake of existing interventions such as lifejackets is low. This study used a Human-Centred Design (HCD) approach to understand why existing interventions are ineffective, identify key drowning risks, and to support communities to develop suitable interventions.

Three fishing communities on the shores of Lake Victoria were invited to participate in the HCD process. Key stakeholders involved in the small-scale fishing industry joined a series of design workshops, which incorporated participatory methods, including co-creative mapping, roleplay, ideation, and prototyping.  The process produced a good understanding of the problems fishers face and the varied risks and behaviours present in different types of artisanal fishing.  The process and results were captured in illustrative and video form and translated into Swahili, which proved invaluable for sharing back to participants, stakeholders, and the wider drowning reduction community. 

Journey maps were developed for fishers, which identified the activities undertaken before, during, and after a fishing trip, highlighting points of risk. This led to insights, and opportunities for interventions. To be able to work safely, fishers need access to and education on good-quality safety equipment, with flexible payment models. They want opportunities to learn formal nautical skills including navigation and emergency procedures, and better access to tailored weather forecasts.

Prototyping workshops were conducted with fishers, designers, government agencies and drowning prevention experts. The participants developed an improved mechanism to provide relevant and timely weather forecasts to fishers, materials to support informed decision-making when purchasing buoyancy devices, and community-level emergency response plans. Prototypes of these interventions will be tested in the participating fishing communities before being introduced to other communities.

HCD approaches enable communities to collaborate with stakeholders to identify drowning risks and develop sustainable solutions that align with the context and preferences of the intended recipients.

Occupational fatality rates in the commercial fishing industry in the United States remain more than 20 times higher than the national average. The burden of commercial fishing fatalities due to unintentional falls overboard is highest in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) shrimp fishery. This presentation will describe a quasi-experimental, pre-/post-test project design undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic. A land-based simulation was used to train commercial fishermen at three port locations in crew overboard (COB) recovery. A survey developed to assess attitudes, beliefs, and intentions of commercial fishermen in COB recovery was administered immediately before and following dissemination of the recovery slings and training in their use. Fishermen received one recovery sling per vessel and a task list of instructions for the sling. A third survey and task list questions were completed at 12-18 months. 119 slings and training in their use were provided to 123 commercial shrimp fishermen along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast. Data analysis showed that positive change in normative beliefs was significant for the importance of quickly and safely maneuvering the vessel to the crew member. This change was most significant over the period from the initial training and receipt of the recovery sling by the fisherman, to the time of follow-up 12-18 months later. Regarding control beliefs, training was associated with immediate statistically significant improved confidence that, with assistance, the fisherman would be able to use the sling and other equipment to hoist the COB. However, this confidence waned over time. Attitudes and beliefs of commercial fishermen in the GOM can be favorably influenced toward a COB recovery device, as well as their confidence and intention to use such devices. However, results show that attitudes and beliefs may wane over time, emphasizing the importance of repeated training and survival drills in this industry.