Long working hours, irregular work patterns, physically demanding tasks and pressure to maximise catches contribute to fatigue and reduced alertness, increasing the likelihood of accidents on a vessel where machinery, heavy loads and an unstable deck are already part of the dangerous working environment.
Fatigue in fisheries is created by how work is organised and commercially driven. Catch-share and productivity-based pay tie earnings to landings, so crews work longer and harder and rest is sacrificed. Derby fishing — the race to fish — drives crews to work around the clock and in severe weather.
Pressure to maximise the catch, tight turnarounds and under manning push fishers beyond safe physical and cognitive limits. These risks intensify where employment is precarious. Fishers paid by share of catch, engaged without contracts or dependent on or indebted to a broker for the next placement have no safe way to report tiredness or refuse unsafe work, and every reason to fear that doing so ends their employment. Fatigue therefore goes unreported until a serious incident exposes it.
ILO Convention 188 sets minimum hours of rest, but enforcement depends on the flag state.
For more on fatigue, working hours and work organisation, see the Risks Across Transport guidance.