# A Feasibility Study to Inform a Multi-Year Comprehensive Health and Safety Initiative for Commercial Fishermen in the Northeastern United States

> **NIH ALLCDC U01** · FISHING PARTNERSHIP HEALTH PLAN · 2020 · $126,962

## Abstract

RFA-OH-20-002: Commercial Fishing Occupational Safety Research Cooperative Agreement (U01)
Project Summary/Abstract
The proposed feasibility study will provide scientific evidence to expose and understand critical health and
safety issues, identify assets and best practice solutions, and support arguments for a multi-year plan to foster
economic resilience, health, and safety of commercial fishermen in the Northeastern United States. The study
will contribute new knowledge to public health by synthesizing existing data (e.g., worker health data from the
NIOSH Data and Statistics Gateway; Coast Guard; literature review), new information from community asset
mapping, interviews, and focus groups on effective strategies and priorities, as well as new cost analyses. In
the short term, the study will assess whether a proposed set of initiatives is a feasible means of fostering
economic resilience and health and safety fishing industry workers in a particular region, but the approach to
the research and findings may translate to policy and practice in other regions and worker populations.
Fishing Partnership Support Services (FPSS), a non-profit, will lead the study, using a multi-method approach,
engaging internal and external researchers from several disciplines (public/behavioral health, psychology,
economics) in collaboration with members of the fishing industry and policy makers. Safety training is a critical
component of FPSS' comprehensive, community-based approach to improving the health, safety and
economic security of fishing communities in Massachusetts and the mid-Atlantic. Prior community-based
research suggests that, while safety trainings are necessary, these trainings will not result in sustainable
change unless other critical barriers are addressed. Industry workers will not prioritize their safety and health
until they can meet the other basic needs associated with accomplishing their work. Global forces, including
low wages, burdensome regulations, inconsistent law enforcement, and climate change, will prevent the
sustainability of current and proposed health and safety programming. A holistic approach is necessary for
sustainable change. In 2020, Massachusetts fishing leaders drafted a framework for achieving the long term
and systemic changes needed to respond to the critical barriers and sustain the advances associated with
recent federal investments in their health and safety. Through this study, FPSS will assess the feasibility of
translating that vision into action in Massachusetts and other Northeastern states and generate new public
health knowledge that can be used in service of designing and implementing a sustainable multi-year project
plan.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10087208
- **Project number:** 1U01OH012086-01
- **Recipient organization:** FISHING PARTNERSHIP HEALTH PLAN
- **Principal Investigator:** John Bartlett
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $126,962
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-01 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10087208

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10087208, A Feasibility Study to Inform a Multi-Year Comprehensive Health and Safety Initiative for Commercial Fishermen in the Northeastern United States (1U01OH012086-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10087208. Licensed CC0.

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