A few weeks ago, we blogged about the inherent dangers that miners, loggers and construction workers face in their day-to-day jobs. When you think about people that face death in their jobs, fisherman and farmers may not be the first thing that pops to mind.
But if you’ve ever seen the Discovery Channel hit shows “Deadliest Catch,” you probably have a better idea of what most deep sea fisherman are up against. These workers go out on boats for months at a time, working 7 days a week. Fatigue is not the only danger after working long hours, often in the dark, and without breaks.
The element of timing can often be one of the largest dangers for many maritime workers. They have to hit the nets at just the right time in order to bring the catch aboard – and keep it aboard. Often times this is done in freezing and very wet conditions. These hazards quickly add up, resulting in an average of 116 deaths and 51 injuries per every 100,000 workers in the fishing industry each year.
Many ship captains will send their crews through safety training, which helps reduce the number of fatalities, but, unfortunately, death is never completely escapable.
And as dangerous as life on the sea can be, there is also danger to be found in jobs that work the land. Farmers and ranchers often face risk of serious or fatal injury when they interact closely with the large, unpredictable animals that are so much a part of farming.
But far more common than death by livestock is death by tractor. For some farmers, it may simply be using older tractors that lack full safety features to work an area of the land prone to rollovers. Equally common are fatalities caused by other large machinery. It is not uncommon for other harvesting equipment to malfunction or mistakes to be made that result in death. While the fatality rate for farmers and ranchers is less than half the rate of fisherman (at 41 deaths per 100,000 workers each year), this higher rate still places it as among some of Texas’ and the nations’ most dangerous jobs.
Related resource: Money.com, “America’s Most Dangerous Jobs.”