Commercial fishing industry deaths – Forensic issues

The commercial fishing industry has one of the highest injury and mortality rates of all occupational areas. This results from the nature of the work involving vessels often manned by only a few individuals who are working with heavy-duty equipment in dangerous environments at all hours. Economic pressures may force inappropriately geared vessels to operate further out to sea than is safe. Deaths result from a wide variety of situations involving vessel loss, falls overboard, fire and explosions, cable entanglements and gas exposure. Autopsies are often difficult as there are no diagnostic features of either drowning or hypothermia and features may be obscured by putrefaction and postmortem animal predation. The forensic implications of deaths in the fishing industry are reviewed.