The Highliner : Fishing kills

The Highliner

Commercial fishing is a bedrock industry in Alaska, and has been for more than a century. Every year scores of fishermen net millions of migrating salmon, challenge the icy Bering Sea to trap king crabs, lay miles and miles of baited hooks for halibut, and scoop up enough pollock for a zillion fish sticks. And when fishermen aren't out fishing, they're usually talking about fishing. That's what this blog by Wesley Loy has been all about for the two years he has written it.

Fishing kills

Posted by The Highliner

Posted: August 10, 2007 - 1:58 pm

What a surprise – commercial fishing remains the nation’s most dangerous occupation, according to the latest national fatality census.

Last year 51 “fishers and related fishing workers” lost their lives, according to the report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That’s up from 48 fishing deaths in 2005.

But the raw death totals don’t tell the main story.

The fatality rate last year was 141.7 per 100,000 people employed in fishing. That’s a far higher rate than for aircraft pilots and flight engineers, loggers, structural iron and steel workers, farmers and ranchers, electric power line workers, roofers and truck drivers.

Click here for the full fatality census.