Introduction - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 16

• Development of work guidelines and other aids for use by parents and
supervisors in agricultural worksites.
• Design of communication strategies capable of reaching agricultural
populations.
Fishing
U.S. fishing industry policies predate the Fair Labor Standards Amendment of
1989 (P.L. 101-157). The hazards of commercial fishing did not fully capture con-
gressional attention until the death of Peter Barry when the fishing vessel Western
Sea sank in August 1985. Peter Barry was the son of Robert and Peggy Barry. He
was chief U.S. delegate in North Atlantic Treaty Organization talks with the Soviet
Union. With a variety of factors at play and the right timing, Peggy Barry made
it her mission to bring the lack of safety regulations of commercial fishing to the
attention of Congress and gave a voice to the efforts of many in the U.S. Coast
Guard and other groups. Through their combined efforts, Congress enacted the
Commercial Fishing Industry Vessel Safety Act (CFIVSA) of 1988 (P.L. 100-424).
Among other items, the CFIVSA required each vessel to carry various survival
equipment and charged the U.S. Coast Guard with regulation enforcement. It led
to Regulation 26 CFR Part 28, released in 1991.
The CFIVSA also directed the Secretary of Transportation to conduct an
assessment of safety problems in the industry. The National Research Council
completed the safety assessment in the 1991 report Fishing Vessel Safety—Guide to
a National Program . The report's recommendations included proposals for safety
administration and for alternatives related to vessels, personnel, survival, and fish-
ery management. The recommendations resulted in several programs: the Coast
Guard Fishing Vessel Safety Decal Program (1992), the Fishing Vessel Safety Decal
(1998), and the Dockside Enforcement Program for Crab Fisheries (1999) (DHS,
2005). More recently, rules pertaining to additional safety procedures and vessel
seaworthiness assessment have been developed, but they have not been formally
released. The National Transportation Safety Board also proposed several safety
recommendations for the commercial fishing industry. NIOSH itself has com-
mented on selected aspects of congressional interest in fishery management that
affect worker safety and health (U.S. House of Representatives, 2007). Testimony on
the affect of the Halibut and Sablefish Individual Fishing Quota policy on search
and rescue efforts and fatalities was also used to develop recent crab rationaliza-
tion efforts and other similar efforts in other fisheries, which allow fisheries to be
managed by vessel-allocation quotas. The quota system enables fishermen to wait
an additional day or so rather than rushing out to sea in tumultuous weather or
using a vessel or equipment that needs repair.