Utilizing Haddon matrix to assess nonfatal commercial fishing injury factors in Oregon and Washington

BACKGROUND: Commercial fishing is a precarious industry with high fatal and nonfatal injury rates. The Risk Information System of Commercial [RISC] Fishing project at Oregon State University has been tracking both fatal and nonfatal injuries among Oregon and Washington commercial fishermen. We examined the utility of the RISC dataset variables in highlighting injury factors and prevention opportunities. METHOD: We identified 245 nonfatal commercial fishing injuries in Oregon and Washington (2000–2018) and assessed the top three injury events (contact with objects or equipment, transportation incidents, and slips/trips/falls) using a cross-sectional design. We generated a Haddon matrix for each event type and populated the matrices with injury-associated factors following our a-priori matrix. RESULTS: We observed 108 nonfatal injuries due to contact with objects. Contact injuries occurred during fishing (40%) with fishing gears (40%), often while hauling the fishing gear (22%). Common injury mechanisms included getting caught in running equipment or machinery (19%) or compressed by shifting objects or equipment (18%). Of the 58 transportation injuries most occurred in catchers (93%) and smaller vessels (1 to 3 crew) (55%). Vessel casualties were common as several vessels struck rocks/bottom (29%) or experienced fire and explosion (19%). The crew was abandoned to water (38%), often due to no raft or raft malfunctions (19%). Slip/trip/fall injuries (n = 43) typically happened during onboard traffic (49%). Such events were largely experienced by the catcher-processors (44%) including large vessels with > 100 crew (28%). CONCLUSION: The Haddon matrix demonstrated the injury-event timeline and helped to identify potential injury-associated factors. Our injury-specific risk matrices will let commercial fishing stakeholders determine priorities and work with the experts on prevention efforts. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40621-023-00428-7.