By developing an evidence-based health and safety training program for Australian fishing communities, this project meets the needs of the commercial wild-catch and aquaculture industry identified in FRDC’s RD&E Program 3, ‘Communities’ and particularly theme 10, which promotes resilient and supportive communities who are able to adapt to the social impacts of change in industry business environments.

The project will address a national need, identified by VicFRAB, to better understand the social and economic contribution of commercial fisheries, by identifying and addressing potential losses incurred through the poor health and wellbeing of the industry’s human capital.

Fishers tend to work in rural and remote communities, which means they have higher rates of mortality, disease and health risk factors than urban dwellers, further impacted by reduced access to primary health care services. Fishers are at particular risk of certain kinds of illnesses (eg. skin and diet-related), as well as injury (fatality rates are more than double those in the agricultural sector). Mental health concerns are higher than average in the fishing industry, exacerbated by uncertainties within the industry including often high debt and insecurity of tenure and licencing. While both women and men are at risk, 86.9% of fishers are male, a factor placing them at greater risk of suicide.

Fisher ‘attitudes’ also impact health, such as the culture of self-reliance, particularly among males. This may make fishers resilient, but also makes them less likely to adopt preventative health practices or to use health services, and they will usually wait longer before seeking medical assistance, particularly for issues of chronic poor mental health.

The Sustainable Fishing Families project will benefit fishing families’ health, safety and resilience by promoting a self-awareness of the value of the industry’s human capital, and building their health capacity.

Internationally it is well documented that despite having a high participation rate in the seafood industry women are very under represented in key decision making roles and have difficulty having their views heard and taken notice of. Other industries have found that supporting a greater involvement by women in decision making fora has provided industry wide benefits, and it is expected that such support would have the same result for seafood.

WINSC itself has recognised the need to better connect with all women in seafood, no matter what their roles may be. WINSC also needs to better understand and use anew technologies to improve communication, connection and support of women in seafood. This proposal seeks funding for 10 months to initiate and undertake the first stage of the proposed WINSC renewal process. This process aims to result in WINSC having capacity and capability to better connect with women in the seafood industry and to deliver support and services that help them to increase their profile, capitalise on and improve their skills and contributions as well as ensure better participation in key decision making roles.

WINSC also recognises the need to mainstream WINSC activities and to involve men as part of the network. In this context WINSC has identified an opportunity to support an annual Seafood Fresh Ideas seminar (to be held as part of Seafood Directions conference in the years that is held and as a stand alone activity in the years that it is not). This will be open to participants from the entire industry and will feature thought provoking presentations from futurists and innovative entrepreneurs. WINSC will explore the feasibility and practicality of this idea as part of the proposed stakeholder review process.

WINSC will also use the stakeholder review process to review the WINSC Bursary process to ensure that it meets the needs of WINSC and FRDC stakeholders