, Director and Principal Ergonomist, Optimise Ltd

, Director and Principal Health and Safety Advisor, Guard Safety Ltd

Like the fishing industry world-wide, commercial fishing in New Zealand has consistently high work-related injury records, with a high percentage of injuries of a ‘manual handling’ or ‘strains/sprains’ type. This paper explores the challenges of addressing health and safety in the commercial fishing industry and presents industry efforts to address a high frequency injury type. The complex maritime legislative environment will be discussed to give background for understanding the fishing industry’s health and safety context. Maritime operators must comply with the same health and safety Acts as land-based industries in addition to the Maritime Transport Act and relevant maritime rules, and other international requirements such as for marine protection. A key industry driver for improving safety and health performance is the Fishing Industry Safety Forum. With a focus on sharing good practices - ‘there are no secrets in safety’ - the forum is focused on reducing the high injury rates in fishing. Work has begun to positively impact musculoskeletal injuries within the industry - a topic not normally talked about amongst highly practical fishers.

This paper illuminates the work of health and safety practitioners in the maritime sector, and the benefits of working with human factors/ergonomics professionals to improve the work experience of NZ fishers. This approach appears to be a new model for intervention in the industry, and is certainly new in New Zealand. Injury reduction and productivity gains have already been realised.

Target Audience:
Fishing/maritime operators and managers; health and safety advisors with an interest in maritime health and safety; personnel from maritime regulatory bodies and WorkSafe NZ; other professionals working within the maritime health and safety sector; marine architects; rehabilitation professionals working with fishers; and human factors/ergonomics professionals with an interest in maritime work environments, musculoskeletal injury prevention, and complex systems.