The experiences of inshore Newfoundland and Labrador fishermen “will drive the research” of a groundbreaking, innovative study underway at the Marine Institute.
Led by Memorial University Masters’ student Tonya Whittle, the study will look at empathy, its impact on work perception and what that means for safety outcomes.
“It’s one of the first of its kind research being done in this field that we know of,” said Whittle. “That interception from a human factor perspective. What are people experiencing from an emotional and empathy perceptive and how do they perceive risk because of that and what are the outcomes from that from the behaviour they engage in.”
Whittle said the study is focused on inshore N.L. harvesters. “Part of the reason we selected that demographic is Newfoundland is built on the fishery. There’s a lot of money available for other industries and research such as oil and gas and maritime industries in general, but fishing is less understudied when it comes to actual human behavior. The end user. The person doing the job themselves when it comes to risk and their perception. Commercial fishing has been on the TSB watchlist since 2012. There was money available to do that study. We felt this was a really good demographic that was current. We might find out some interesting things, what would help them adopt safer practices and such instead of waiting for regulatory bodies to enforce them.”
The study is being done in two ways, said Whittle. Anyone taking safety training courses at the Marine Institute are required to participate before and after their courses, through a survey. “We measure any changes based on before and after the training from entry level to master fishing certification,” said Whittle.
“The second part is grounded research. We’re looking to talk to 30 fishers and harvesters about their experiences and what they determine to be empathic or risk perception or safety practices, and input through casual conservation,” said Whittle.
The study will look at crew dynamics, what’s happening between the captain and crew, communication, effective practices, and how do human factors influence that and ultimately how people engage, said Whittle. “We’re building a knowledge base of academic and industry research with whatever we find. We’re not going in with a hypothesis. We’re allowing the stories to data us. We have questions and we look for themes. Those themes will actually tell us what’s going on with people who do the job every single day. That could potentially inform safety training. There’s a lot of safety training and regulatory practices that people have to have. If we can introduce something to the training, that’s the kind of potential where it could go.”
Whittle said researchers expect to finish collecting data by the end of February. Several months will be spent analysing the data. A report will be available by August 2026.
“People are doing safe things out there every single day. Doing safe practices. The Fish Harvesters Safety Association is doing great work. The Marine Institute offshore safety and survival sector are doing incredible work around safety. It is getting safer but… if we can get a better understanding of the people doing this work every single day then we can help them a little bit more through those training courses. Not to over regulate the industry but to support people in their everyday work. To really understand people. Despite that we’re moving into AI and robots, people are still the centre of everything. Better understanding allows us to do a better job at creating courses. That’s why it’s important to get people to talk to us in the study and share their experiences. They will drive the research. Their experiences become the research,” said Whittle.
Commercial fishing is identified as the worlds most dangerous industry. “Newfoundland actually has some of the safest practices in Canada, one of the most regulated and safest fisheries in Canada, but recent research indicates that still there are injuries 40 times higher than the national average of other industries in terms of risk of injury and death,” said Whittle.
