Occupational risks, safety and masculinity: Newfoundland fish harvesters' experiences and understandings of fishery risks

Abstract

There is no single, objective place from which to assess risk, and the best way to assess and minimise risk is through seeking input from a variety of different knowledge agents focusing on different sources and dimensions of risk and using multiple methodologies. This paper draws on Wynne's work on constructivist-realism and on the feminist literature on masculinity to examine fish harvesters' understandings and experiences of risk and safety in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador on Canada's east coast. Using data drawn from focus groups, phone interviews and from individual boat tours with Newfoundland fish harvesters, it is argued that their understandings and practices of risk and safety are dynamic and that this dynamism reflects the intersection of everyday requirements to get the job done in what are often uncertain and constrained circumstances associated with the interacting and changing regulatory, industrial and environmental contexts in which this work is done. From this perspective, while quantifying fisheries risks in terms of fatality, accident or Search and Rescue incident rates is important, the inclusion of fish harvesters' experiences and related safety knowledge in research and policy-development designed to reduce risk is imperative. The view from the deck of the vessel and fish harvesters' experiences on the water not only informs their observations and interpretations of risk but offer potential insights into risk and into expert claims about risk that should be taken into account when trying to understand fishing risk and improve safety.

Keywords:

• risk
• risk perception
• uncertainty
• masculinity
• fishing
• fisheries

Notes

1.This research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Grant CAHR-43269 through SafetyNet, a Community Research Alliance on Health and Safety in Marine and Coastal Work based at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Funding was also provided by Memorial University, the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Applied Health Research, and the National Search and Rescue Secretariat New Initiatives Fund. Community collaborators George Chafe representing the Small Fishing Vessel Safety Committee, Mark Dolomount representing the Professional Fish Harvesters Certification Board, and Graham Small representing the Offshore Safety and Survival Centre, Marine Institute provided input into the design of the research and helped recruit participants. I would like to thank Drs Barbara Neis and Marian Binkley for their input into the design and conduct of this research. Barbara Neis also reviewed earlier drafts of this paper and provided useful comments. Sandra Brennan, a masters student in Sociology and research assistants Nancy Leawood, Melissa Kennedy and Julie Matthews helped with data collection, data entry and data analysis. Dr. Michael Murray provided useful input during early phases of the research. Ethics clearance for this research was provided by the Human Investigations Committee at Memorial University and the Human Research Ethics Board at Dalhousie University.

2.A general report of the findings from the overall SafeCatch project is available on the SafetyNet website http://www.safetynet.mun.ca/pdfs/POR.pdf

3.Thanks to Dorothy Wigmore for introducing Nicole Power to this methodology and to Dwayne White for designing the generic map of a fishing vessel deck used in the boat tours.

4.FH000 identifies an individual fish harvester in a particular focus group section, indicated by FG00.

5.The word ‘traditional’ is used in the local culture to describe ways of doing things that have an assumed local history. It is also referenced in official government documents, though the definition does not always coincide with local interpretations. See Power (2005) for a more detailed discussion.

6.These vessels are 35 feet in length but have been widened and heightened to such a degree that they appear to be almost cubical in shape.

7.This finding is based on data from a linked project entitled, ‘The Fishing Safety Training Project.’ This project was funded by the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Applied Health Research.