August 23, 2012 โ When NIOSH started investigating injuries to Alaskan seiners a few years ago, they found a common theme. Researchers were able to trace countless instances of crushing, amputation, and drowning back to getting tangled up in the net.
โThey get caught up and wrapped. And once they get wrapped, they canโt reach the controls to shut down the winch,โ says Chelsea Woodward. Woodward is one of four researchers on NIOSHโs commercial fishing safety team. He serves as an engineer, and it was his job to design a simple tool based on NIOSHโs seiner research.
He came up with a design for an emergency kill switch that would quickly stop the net from winding up. The fishermen who tested the kill switch on their seine boats liked it โ and that kill switch is now sold commercially, in a kit.
Woodward says Alaska fishermen are ideal research subjects. Theyโre willing to collaborate, and provide input on NIOSHโs research and gear designs.
โThis is a good place because of the understanding that commercial fishermen have with NIOSH,โ he says. โThereโs a better understanding that NIOSH is not regulatory. We have their best interests in mind.โ
But Woodward says fishermen outside Alaska donโt always understand that NIOSH is a research agency โ it doesnโt deal in law enforcement, and itโs totally separate from OSHA, which can hand out fines for safety violations.