I have been always quite open that I got into fisheries for two main reasons: 1) I always loved the thrilling and open nature of the ocean (particularly after my time in the navy as a cadet), but equally important 2) because I really didn't fit anywhere else…
Let it be your reality for 3 years no going home.
My dyslexia was shown as a sign of being dumb, add to that I’m (and was even more at the time) what we will call today neurodiverse, and definitively had PTSD (still today). At almost 2 mts tall (6’6) and a competitive rower and Rescue swimmer, I was quite imposing, and no one really knew how to deal with me (nor I knew how to deal with them nor my self)
When I started the main qualifications you needed to go fishing is a hard stomach and to don't give a shit about much really… so was kinda natural fitting. It was rough, but the entry requirement was really low, you made relatively good money and had a strong fisherman union.
Yet you realize very soon that is not a job for “normal” people. If you don't really know if you coming back every time you get out fishing, everyday life looks rather different. Life at sea sorts out people quite fast, either you deal with it, or you don't and you never come back, and that is ok, we respect that.
Also the basis of your relationship with fellow humans changes… when you share living quarters that are barely liveable with people you never meet before, yet you hear ALL their body’s noises less than a meter from you… one develop an open mind and thick skin. I soon realize, I didn’t have to like the bloke next to me… nor he had to like me… but we need to trust each other because our life depends on each other. I fished with awesome people and some real shitheads, whose views about aspects of life I despised… but they were “solid” fisherman and I’ll have them as crew anytime.
In any case, fishing was (and still is) the option for people on the margin of “normal” society, for the “unadapted” (what a concept!), to have a chance to make relatively good money (at least in comparison with the other options available) if one had the guts to deal with it.
That was then… today’s picture is different, while still has some of those guys, but now includes the poorer (and sometimes options-less) citizens of complex countries in SE Asia (Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, etc). I fished with many of them and their angle was different, their options are so much more limited than for westerners (or part Europeans like me) so they get into fishing because is one of the few things they can do and not because they are not really good for anything else (as in my case).
Needless to say, fishing with them was one of the best and more eye-opening experiences I had onboard fishing boats, amazing, resourceful, resilient and truly gentle people coming with a worldview most westerners will never grasp.
Some of the most positive and resourceful people you’ll ever meet
For many of these reasons, I was interested in the title of this paper “Mental health in the commercial fishing industry: Modern uncertainties and traditional risks” and had a read.
On the bridge of the Ocean Breeze south of Tazzie
I liked it, even if I immediately understood that it was a very geographically and socially limited view of fishers… I only fished with a mixed NZ / Australian crew out of Hobart for Hoki in a factory vessel (the Ocean Dawn) in 1997… and it was up with the most comfortable and safe fishing trips I ever had.
So I think these results are equally comparable to those we find in NZ where I worked more extensively in smaller vessels… yet in any case, they were a far cry from some of the shit boats I been working in Argentina and the Pacific.
I did especially like the fact that it separated the ‘stressors” into two “usual” categories: ‘traditional risks’ and ‘modern uncertainties’ and adds a new one “future concerns”
The ‘traditional risks’ of fishing include the physically dangerous nature of the job, the variable weather, long and unsocial hours of work, being self-employed, managing crew dynamics, responding to fluctuating market conditions, and variable catches. While it is impossible to eliminate these risks, fishers do have some day-to-day control over traditional risks through their skills, knowledge, and experience. It is argued that fishers have traditionally faced these stressors with virtuosity, through some combination of a heightened tolerance for risk, a capacity to navigate and mitigate such risks through either learned or inherent characteristics and abilities, and through a willing trade-off between the perceived risks and rewards of the lifestyle … basically is ‘what we signed up for’.
In contrast, ‘modern uncertainties’ is where I see (somehow ironically) the privilege of being a fisherman in rich countries… because we are talking about increasing regulatory surveillance, oversight and compliance requirements, a reduction, removal, or restructuring of access rights (including intergenerational access), negative representation in the media and conflict with other stakeholders (e.g. anglers, energy developments, other commercial fishers). Modern uncertainties tend to emanate from policy decisions that have arisen in recent decades as the regulatory environment has tightened in response to actual and perceived environmental decline. While regulatory agencies purportedly make policy decisions about fisheries access and practices in a manner consistent with scientific evidence, the powerful role of public opinion, political negotiation, and including a sense of public disregard or even demonization, which potentially undermines political support for commercial fisheries, are types of modern uncertainties that have added to the stressors already posed by traditional risks.
This is not to say at all… that these modern ones are not important… I never felt so much like shit when my young daughter was almost apologetic in saying to a friend that I was a fisherman but a nice one… as if I was a criminal or something… still stings my soul.
For the foreign fisherman (normally these from poorer countries) the ‘modern uncertainties’ are a luxury most of them cannot afford… their reality is an amplification of the the “traditional” ones… no money, not being home, in most cases no legal status or protections on board. Needless to say, the “future concerns” are even less than an option, since when you barely have a present… the future is an extravagance.
Multiculturality in a tuna seiner
Anyways, an interesting paper I just will highlight some elements from the introduction and the conclusion, but as always: read the original!
Introduction
Commercial fishing poses a range of physical and mental challenges. Levels of physical injury and fatality exceed those of most other peacetime occupations, and labouring in dangerous or demanding environments can put pressure on the mental health of workers. However, research also suggests that overcoming physical challenges and managing calculated risks can contribute to fisher job satisfaction. Many remain in the job long after it would be economically rational to leave because of an emotional attachment to the occupation and lifestyle. Understanding poor mental health that occurs within the fishing industry requires careful atonement to the culturally specific negotiation of risk and harm.
For over twenty years, researchers have suggested that the state of mental health among commercial fishers is cause for concern. In 1998, was reported that 35% of 567 Gulf of Maine shrimp captains interviewed had a diagnosable mental health disorder, roughly double that of the general American male population. Since this alarming discovery, there has been little attention paid to understanding the state of mental health among commercial fishers. While qualitative social science has explored the nature of the problem and considered underlying drivers, few have quantitatively measured the state of fishers’ mental health until very recently.
What drives poor mental health in any individual is complex and multifaceted, and incorporates environmental, biological, cultural and circumstantial factors. Some research links the physically risky nature of working at sea and the accompanying isolation with poor mental health (ITF Seafarers’ Trust, 2017); however, these assumptions remain largely untested. Seafarers also report that long periods of time spent in nature, or among a small group of like-minded colleagues, are an appealing, emotionally uplifting aspect of the occupation.
Conclusion
This study provides robust quantitative evidence supporting the call for greater attention to fishers’ mental health. There has already been significant work done by researchers and practitioners to identify ways to improve mental health in cohorts with which fishers overlap (e.g. ‘men’, ‘primary producers’), and opportunities exist for tailored remedial measures to be modelled on proven techniques. The novelty of this study is that it delineates stressors in a way that allows a clearer understanding of the threats that are specific to fishers— and therefore possible avenues for even more bespoke solutions— to improve mental health in the fishing industry.
This study differentiates between the categories of stressor that are expected to affect the mental well- being of fishers, namely ‘modern uncertainties’, which are largely beyond fishers’ individual control, and ‘traditional risks’, where some individual mitigation actions are possible, and adds the category of ‘future concerns’. The finding that modern uncertainties had a significantly greater im-pact on skippers than crew supports the idea that these stressors are likely to be more detrimental to their mental health than those traditional risks they ‘signed up for’. In contrast, the younger crew cohort was more likely than skippers to experience future concerns about climate change and changing skill requirements.
These findings provide strong evidence that changes to factors associated with modern uncertainty stressors - government management techniques, media representation, political support - could significantly improve mental health and well-being in the commercial fishing sector. Possible avenues of change may be streamlined administrative requirements, more explicit support from political representatives, and positive media representation.