February 21, 2025 — Fisheries observers in Alaska face workplace harassment, intimidation and assault at much higher rates than are reported, but the true prevalence is unknown as incidents largely go unreported, according to a new multiyear study.
Observers work alongside fishing crews to document scientific fisheries data essential to fisheries management, nontargeted species harvested as bycatch, and potential law violations of commercial fisheries operations, as mandated by federal law. Observers’ assignments can be aboard vessels or onshore locations such as harbors or processing plants, and can range from a few days to several weeks at sea.
The study focused on observers working in Alaska’s North Pacific groundfish and halibut fishery, which spans from the Bering Sea, to the Aleutian Islands and the Gulf of Alaska — the largest fisheries monitoring program in the United States.
“Observers find themselves labeled by industry members as ‘fish cops’ or ‘snitches,’ have been subject to intimidation, harassment, and assault (including sexual assault and rape), and have even gone missing at sea,” according to research cited in the study.
Study results estimate 45% of those who experienced harassment disclosed the issue in a given year, and that true prevalence of harassment varied from 22% to 38% of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration observers each year.
Researchers with the Alaska office of the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, and special agents at the Alaska Office of Law Enforcement, conducted the study from 2016 to 2022. Researchers say this is the first study to estimate rates of victimization and disclosure in a fisheries observer program.
“The goal of the project was really to discover what is the true victimization rate, trying to account for that problem we have in all crimes, which is underreporting,” said Craig Faunce, a study co-author. He is a research fisheries biologist with NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Fisheries Science Center.