U.N. Study: Fishing Kills 70 People Daily

NEW YORK, Jan. 25, 2001 -- -- A profession that is one of the world’s most basic is also one of the world’s most deadly, a U.N. study said today.

Fishing at sea claims at least 70 lives a day — and very likely more, because few countries keep accurate records on the industry, according to a report from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In the United States the fatality rate among fishermen is 25 to 30 times the total national death rate, said the report. In Italy it is more than 21 times the national average, and in Australia it is almost 18 times the national average.

The International Labor Organization estimates that 24,000 fishermen die at work annually.

The Reasons for Death

There were many reasons cited for the high rate of death among fishermen, among them, the dwindling stocks of fish in some waters. That means they are often forced to trawl further away from shore, in fishing craft not designed for that task, the report said.

Furthermore, the report said because the fishermen have to travel farther offshore, they are staying at sea longer, which increases the risk to their boats and their crew, who sometimes have limited experience with extended periods at sea.

And because these fishermen often have limited experience fishing offshore, they lack knowledge on essential issues such as navigation, weather forecasting and communications.

The report said in developing countries, poorly designed and built fishing craft, lack of safety equipment and inappropriate, outdated and inadequately enforced regulations are the main causes of fatalities.

In one night in November 1996, more than 1,400 fishermen perished during a severe cyclone on the east coast of India. Many of their trawlers were poorly designed and built, and few, if any, were equipped with safety equipment or even simple transistor radios.

Even though the media broadcast advance warning of the cyclone, the fishermen were largely caught unaware.

Inherent Risk-Takers

But the most basic reason for the high rate of fatalities among all fishermen, no matter where they fish, is a fatalistic attitude, said Jeremy Turner, an FAO expert.

"I think they are aware that loss of life [in fishing] is probably high, but I think it's one of those professions where they prefer to turn a blind eye to it," he told ABCNEWS.com. "Somehow risk is seen as an integral part of the job."

The FAO report mentions that fishing is often a source of income for those at the bottom of society's scale — casual workers, the landless and unemployed — those who have no hope of an alternative source of income.

Consequently, many fishermen are those who are the most desperate and most willing to take a risk. "It's one of the last frontiers of hunting for food," Turner said. "Access to the sea is free."

The nature of fishing and its inherent dangers also appear to feed off one another. One of the major dangers in fishing is fatigue, but fishermen tend to understaff their boats, because the more people in a crew, the more ways profits from a catch have to be split.

Finding a Solution in Wifely Pressure

Turner said there has to be a change in attitude — but that likely won't come from national or governmental organizations. Instead, community groups, family and primary school education in fishing communities have to play a role, he says.

That's because while the fishermen are full of bravado, their families are the ones that have to deal with their deaths.

The consequences of loss of life fall heavily on dependents, the FAO report said. In developing countries, widows have a low social standing, there is no welfare state to support bereaved families, and, lacking alternative sources of income, widows and children may face destitution.

Turner tells the story of one effort in the United States, when the Coast Guard began requiring fishing boats to carry "survival suits" — a sort of personal lifeboat that a sailor can put on if he has to leave his ship.

Most fishing crews refused to carry them, he said. The suits were too expensive, and many of the fishermen had the attitude that "if I'm dead, I'm dead," Turner said.

But then someone began organizing the fishermen's wives to pressure their husbands for these suits.

Thankfully, it worked, and the suits are common pieces of equipment to the fishing boats now, Turner said — "because every man knows when he comes under extreme pressure from his wife, he does what he's told."