At the 2018 International Fishing Industry Safety and Health Conference (IFISH5), held in Newfoundland, one particular session sparked a conversation that is still active three years later.
The panel-led session —“Changing commercial fishing personal flotation use behavior: what can we learn from efforts to address the most important safety technology adoption challenge of our time?”— yielded so much discussion that panel members and attendees advocated to keep the conversation and collaboration going beyond the conference.
The Northeast Center has been making that happen, organizing online meetings for an international PFD work group—a meeting of commercial fishing researchers, safety trainers and others from around the world interested in the topic of lifejacket use.
The focus of the group is to build connections among researchers, share resources and further collaborations among individuals, organizations and countries seeking to increase PFD use in commercial fishing. Membership has been steadily growing with almost 90 members to date.
Meetings take place virtually on a quarterly basis. Recordings of recent presentations may be found on the IFISH website. To learn more contact Rebecca Weil.