Maritime Work Safety: Why Fishing, Diving and Port Jobs Are So Dangerous

About 400,000 people work in U.S. maritime industries, and they face a higher risk of death, injury and illness than American workers overall. Commercial fishing is widely considered one of the most dangerous jobs in the country, and water transportation has a fatality rate 4.7 times that of all U.S. workers.

The dangers come both on the water and at waterfront facilities such as shipyards and marine terminals, and some are unique to a single industry.

Commercial fishermen prepare bait aboard a vessel. Image by NIOSH

Seven priority industries

NIOSH's Center for Maritime Safety and Health Studies focuses on seven:

Six-year averages of Bureau of Labor Statistics data, 2011–2017.

These rates may be inflated, because the Bureau of Labor Statistics has long undercounted maritime workers — the work is often remote, part-time or temporary, or overlaps other industries.

Why they're hard to reach

Beyond their high injury and death rates, these industries are hard to reach with safety programs:

• many are small businesses with few or seasonal workers
• many work in remote places
• in some jobs, people live and work aboard vessels

Learn more by industry

• Shipyards
• Marine terminals and port operations
• Marine transportation
• Seafood processing, including its ergonomic, language-barrier and fatigue hazards
• Aquaculture
• Commercial fishing, studied by NIOSH's Western States Division office in Alaska
• Commercial diving

Sources

Based on "About Maritime Safety and Health," National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain.