Critical Communication: Understanding cultural factors enhances design and delivery of workplace safety training interventions.

Excerpt from U.S. Coast Guard Proceedings of the Marine Safety & Security Council magazine by Jeffrey L. Levin, M.D. M.S.P.H, University of Texas Health Science Center; Karen Gilmore, M.P.H. University of Texas Health Science Center;Ms. Ann Carruth, D.N.S., R.N., Southeastern Louisiana University; Ms. Amanda Wickman, University of Texas Health Science Center; Ms. Sara Shepherd, M.A.M.S., University of Texas Health Science Center; Mr. Gilbert Gallardo, U.S. Coast Guard Eighth District

Commercial Fishing Vessel Safety; Dr. Matthew Nonnenmann, C.I.H., University of Texas Health Science Center.

The Problem
The U.S. Coast Guard Eighth District, which encompasses the Gulf Coast from Texas to the panhandle of Florida, has the second-highest level of vessel losses and crew fatalities among commercial fishermen, according to U.S. Coast Guard statistics.

How Do You Fix That?
First, work to understand these fishermen. The makeup of the commercial fishing population along the United States Gulf Coast is diverse, with many Asian (primarily Vietnamese) shrimpers.

Cultural barriers can get in the way of critical communication and interfere with receptivity to necessary safety training. To successfully communicate, one must understand and embrace its cultural norms.

How Does This Work?
Recognizing these issues, the Southwest Center for Agricultural Health, Injury Prevention, and Education (SW Ag Center), in collaboration with USCG Marine Safety Unit Texas City, added a module for safety training for Vietnamese shrimp fishermen.

Instructors in the SW Ag Center effort developed typical onboard scenarios that a skilled mariner used to instruct a small group of fishermen in Vietnamese on a vessel bridge. The trainees then practiced the various skills.

Future Direction
Feedback has been highly favorable. The project has demonstrated the importance of considering cultural factors, including language, in the design and delivery of workplace safety training interventions. It has increased acceptance of the USCG as partners in safety, and recognition by individual fisherman of their responsibility to be safe at work. Ongoing meetings with multiple USCG stakeholders will focus on further program development.

Full article is available at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/winter2010-11/

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Pictured on Top Right: Mariners practice signaling and communication skills on the bridge of a shrimp vessel.

Pictured on Bottom Left: In an onboard training presented in Vietnamese, the shrimp fishermen listen respectfully to an experienced mariner.

Interventions in the Interest of Safety-- PART 2

Training, research, and outreach in Maine’s commercial fishing industry.

Excerpt from U.S. Coast Guard Proceedings of the Marine Safety & Security Council magazine by Ms. Ann S.N. Backus, M.S., occupational safety instructor, Harvard School of Public Health.

Mandated Training Part 2
In a parallel effort to establish a more safety-savvy cadre of dive tenders for the hand-harvest industry (urchins, scallops, lobster), the DMR collaborated with the Maine Commercial Fishing Safety Council in 2009 to create a dive tender rule and a DMR online diving safety course for tenders.

Under the rule, those seeking a dive tender license must pass a test and present current first aid and CPR certifications. As of mid-June 2010, forty people had been issued dive tender licenses through this process.

In the most recent three years, there was a 19 percent incidence rate of diver deaths recorded in the USCG First District. With dive tenders now presumably alert to unsafe diving situations and able to recognize divers in distress, we hope to see a reduction in Maine’s contribution to this rate.

Research and Outreach
The Harvard Education and Resource Center (ERC) is currently one of the hubs for research and outreach activities that engage Maine’s fishing industry. In 1999 the Harvard ERC launched a lobsterman entanglement study along the Maine coast in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control/National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health Alaska Field Station in Anchorage, Alaska.

Additionally, Mary Davis, Ph.D., of the Tufts University Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, and Ann Backus, M.S., of Harvard collaborated on a study titled “Safety and Compliance in the Maine Commercial Fishing Industry” that was funded by NOAA and the Maine Sea Grant. This study investigated the current level of safety preparedness in the industry from the equipment and training perspectives.

Future Direction
Fishing safety is—and has to be—a joint effort of government, industry, and private players. I would like to acknowledge those mentioned here and all others who are participating in building an infrastructure that will drive and support a culture of safety in Maine.

Full article is available at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/winter2010-11/

Subscribe online at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/subscribe.asp.

Interventions in the Interest of Safety-- PART 1

Excerpt from U.S. Coast Guard Proceedings of the Marine Safety & Security Council magazine by Ms. Ann S.N. Backus, M.S., occupational safety instructor, Harvard School of Public Health.

Maine’s Commercial Fishing Industry
Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated more than 233 million pounds of live fish landed in 2008 by Maine commercial fishermen included: the American lobster, accounting for 30 percent of the catch; the Atlantic herring for 28 percent; and the cultured Atlantic salmon for nine percent.

In terms of dollar value, the American lobster catch accounted for 68 percent of the $362 million industry in Maine in 2008, cultured Atlantic salmon accounted for 17 percent, and the value of the Atlantic herring catch was only two percent of the total catch.

High Dollar, High Risk
The average price per pound for lobster was at an all-time high of $4.43 in 2007 and has dropped each of the succeeding years in spite of (or perhaps because of) major increases in landings in 2008 and 2009.

Fatality rates in the lobster fishery are also of great concern. In terms of casualty data, from 1993 to 2010, according to U.S. Coast Guard First District statistics:

• 29 percent of the deaths were in the trawler industry,
• 24 percent were in the lobster fishery,
• 6.7 percent were divers.

If we look at deaths by fishery in the last three years we see that:

• 37 percent were trawler industry deaths,
• 11 percent were lobster fishery deaths,
• 19 percent were diver deaths.

Mandated Training
In 1995, the Maine DMR supported the apprentice license requirement and apprentice program that became effective in 1996. In November 2006, the Maine Commercial Fishing Safety Council recommended that fishing vessel drill conductor training be part of the apprentice program. Under this program, those wishing to become lobstermen must complete an apprenticeship that requires 1,000 hours of lobstering and complete an accepted Coast Guard fishing vessel drill conductor course and a first aid course. To date, almost 900 apprentices have completed the program.

PICTURED: John McMillan and

Coast Guard commercial fishing safety examiner Paul Smith-Valley teach escape techniques using an egress trainer at the 2010 Fishermen’s Forum, Rockport, Maine. Photo courtesy of Ms. Ann Backus.
In Part 2 we will find out more about Maine’s commercial fishing industry.

Full article is available at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/winter2010-11/

Subscribe online at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/subscribe.asp.