Using Haddon matrix to identify prevention opportunities for nonfatal commercial fishing injuries in the Pacific Northwest

Abstract

Abstract Background Commercial fishing is a precarious industry with high fatal and nonfatal injury rates. The Risk Information System of Commercial [RISC] Fishing project at Oregon State University has been tracking both fatal and nonfatal injuries among Pacific Northwest commercial fishermen. We conducted a hazard analysis to identify injury-associated factors to highlight prevention opportunities. Method We identified 245 nonfatal commercial fishing injuries in the Pacific Northwest (2000-2018) and assessed the top three injury events (contact with objects or equipment, transportation incidents, and slips-trips-falls). We generated a Haddon matrix for each event type and populated the matrices with injury-associated factors following our a-priori matrix. Results We observed 108 nonfatal injuries due to contact with objects. Fishing gear (40%) was the dominant injury source. The top work process was hauling the fishing gear (22%). Handling heavy loads (32%) and contact with unsecured objects (27%) often resulted in contact injuries. Of the 58 transportation injuries most occurred in the catcher-vessels (93%) and smaller vessels (< 5 crew) (74%). Vessel casualties (91%) were common as several vessels struck rocks/bottom (29%) or experienced fire and explosion (19%). The crew was abandoned to water (38%) due to no raft or raft malfunctions. Slip, trip, and fall injuries (n = 43) typically happened during onboard traffic (49%). Such events were largely experienced by the catcher-processors (44%) including large vessels with >100 crew (28%). Conclusion The Haddon matrix demonstrated the injury-event timeline and helped to identify potential injury-associated factors. Our injury-specific risk matrices will let commercial fishing stakeholders determine priorities and work with the experts on prevention efforts.