December 11, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ — Commercial fishing is one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States. The average fatality rate per 100,000 workers is 128, versus the national average of four per 100,000 for all other occupations. Commercial fishing generates $4.4 billion in revenue each year and is performed off every coast in America. Nowhere is commercial fishing more dangerous than in the wild waters off Alaska. Fortunately, the seamen that work on commercial fishing boats have legal recourse in the event of a workplace injury.
A study of Alaska's commercial fishing industry by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) explores the dangerous conditions that Alaskan commercial fisherman face and sobering related occupational health statistics. In Alaska, weather and what NIOSH calls "experience conditions" or conditions workers encounter as part of the job, make a fisherman's work environment hazardous. In addition to performing their work duties under extreme weather conditions, seamen are required to work with and around dangerous machinery that is used to haul up catches of fish. Between 2000 and 2009, 133 fishermen lost their lives on the job, an average rate of 13 people per year. Most fatalities were caused by disasters that forced the crew to abandon the ship, falls overboard or onboard accidents.
Between 1994 and 2004, most of the severe injuries suffered by Alaskan commercial fisherman were caused by the machinery or other gear used on vessels. Between 1991 and 2002, almost 800 fishermen were hospitalized with severe injuries suffered while on the job, or an average of one every 10 days. The most severe injuries reported were amputations, 54 percent of which were caused by machinery.
Fortunately, fishermen who are injured on the job are often able to hold their employers accountable. In 1920, Congress passed the Jones Act, which affords seamen the same right to seek damages from their employers that railroad workers enjoy under the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA).
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