NEWBURYPORT — Don't believe the Discovery Channel show "Deadliest Catch."
The most dangerous fishing is done off New England and the Mid-Atlantic states for groundfish and scallops, not in Alaska's Bering Sea for crabs, according to a report by the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Of those fisheries for which average annual fatality rates could be calculated, the Northeast multispecies groundfishery had the highest rate, 600 deaths per 100,000 full-time employees, followed by the Atlantic scallop fleet, including the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, 425 deaths per 100,000 full-time employees," two CDC researchers reported earlier this summer.
The Bering Sea Aleutian Island crabfishery over the same period had a death rate of 260 per 100,000 full-time employees. The figures covered the period 2000 to 2009. During that time, 504 commercial fishermen were killed at work, the CDC reported.
Newburyport's commercial fishing fleet has diminished greatly over the years — numbering only a half-dozen or so boats today — but the city has suffered heartbreaking tragedy out of proportion to the size of the fleet.
In January 2007, Capt. Sean Cone, 24, and his shipmate Daniel Miller, 21, were lost when their 52-foot steel hull dragger Lady Luck sank in the early morning hours after the boat had left Portland, Maine, to return to Newburyport.
The ship was found about 30 miles southeast of Portland in water more than 500 feet deep. The cause of the sinking was never definitively determined, although the Coast Guard said the likely cause was capsizing due to excessive water on deck. The Coast Guard reported that the boat sank so quickly that the men didn't have time to access lifesaving equipment.
Before dawn on Sept. 5, 1997, the Newburyport-based Heather Lynne II capsized off Cape Ann when it struck a long cable connecting a barge to its towboat. Three fishermen were lost: Capt. Jeffery Hutchins, and crewmen Kevin Foster and John Lowther. At least two of the crew survived the capsizing and were trapped in the overturned hull, but efforts to rescue them failed.
A memorial to all five men stands on the Newburyport waterfront, near the Harbormaster's shack.
Commercial fishing consistently ranks as the most dangerous profession. Rounding out the top five are lumbering, farming/ranching, steel/iron working and garbage collecting.
The fishing fatality rate has been declining since 1992, wrote the authors, J. Lincoln and D. Lucas from the Alaska Pacific Regional Office of the CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
It is true, the authors reported, that Alaska — where the popular reality show "Deadliest Catch" is set — had the highest number of fishing deaths in the 10-year study period, but the death rate was higher in this region than Alaska.
Of those lost at sea, the CDC reported, 491 — or 97 percent — were male; the mean age of those lost was 41.
Nationally, an average of 58 commercial fishermen a year died in occupational accidents over the 10-year period.
The Environmental Defense Fund, which has been the lead advocate for catch shares — the management system that came into use in the New England groundfishery May 1 — used the publication of the report as a reason to hail the catch share format.
"To a certain degree, fishing is inherently dangerous — going out on a boat in the middle of the ocean, hauling heavy swinging pots or nets onto a deck covered in gear while waves crash around you carries a certain amount of risk," EDF's Kate Bonzon blogged.
"But the job can be made more dangerous due to restrictive fishery management policies that try to limit fishermen's catch by severely limiting fishing seasons and/or days-at-sea," she said, referring to the old system used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "When faced with such restrictions, fishermen attempt to maximize their catch in these short windows of time by going out regardless of weather, working longer shifts and overloading their boats with equipment."
Under the new catch share regimen, fishermen working in cooperatives known as sectors are allocated "shares" of a total allowable catch for each fish stock.
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