Occupational Safety and Health Risks

Fishing remains one of the most hazardous occupations in the world, with an estimated 34,000 fishers dying at work every year according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). 

Fishers face a combination of physical, environmental and psychosocial risks, and prevention requires robust occupational safety and health management systems, safe crewing levels, adequate rest, emergency preparedness, training, access to healthcare and meaningful worker participation in safety processes.

ILO Convention 188 requires minimum hours of rest, medical care aboard and access to medical treatment ashore. Enforcement depends on the flag state — and on a vessel that never makes port, there is no port state to inspect it.

Fatigue, working hours and work organisation

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.

Exposure to hazardous substances, biological risks

Exposure to fuels, lubricants, chemicals and refrigerants creates additional risks for fishers. Biological hazards, including infectious disease, are compounded by prolonged periods at sea, crowded living conditions aboard and limited access to healthcare – a fisher who falls ill weeks from shore may have no medical care of any kind.

Climate-related risk

Climate change is reshaping systemic risks within the sector. As fish stocks move or decline, vessels travel further from shore and remain at sea for longer periods, increasing worker isolation, extending exposure to hazardous conditions and heightening dependence on employers and vessel operators. These changes amplify existing vulnerabilities associated with recruitment, labour exploitation and access to remedy. 

Climate change is increasingly recognised as a labour rights and occupational safety issue in fisheries, affecting fishers directly and indirectly. Direct risks include increased exposure to storms, extreme weather events, heat stress, injury and illness. Indirect risks arise as fish stocks shift due to warming waters and changing ocean conditions, requiring longer voyages with fewer port visits, longer working hours and greater physical and mental demands on crews – producing fatigue, stress, reduced recovery time and deteriorating mental health outcomes. 

Climate change compounds existing decent work deficits, particularly where workers have limited influence over operational decisions or face pressure to continue fishing in unsafe conditions. Migrant fishers are the most exposed, often lacking the ability to refuse hazardous work without fear of retaliation or loss of employment.

Mental health and psychosocial risk

Mental health and psychosocial risks are widespread in fisheries and are closely linked to the systemic conditions of the work. Fishers work in isolated, confined environments for extended periods, separated from family and support networks. Combined with long hours, fatigue, safety-critical responsibilities, inadequate training and the constant physical danger of the work, this produces stress, anxiety, depression and other mental health harm. 

Psychosocial risks are intensified by steep hierarchies aboard, job insecurity and fear of retaliation. Fishers are reluctant to report mental health concerns or unsafe conditions because of stigma or fear for future employment – and violence, harassment and discrimination add further psychological harm. Dependence on the captain for work, food and everything else, and the impossibility of leaving, compound all of it. Where pay depends on the catch, financial anxiety also runs through every voyage. 

Mental health risks are inseparable from others risks. Addressing them also requires training for fishers on mental health and wellbeing – work in which the ITF leads the industry.