A worker aboard a commercial fishing vessel. (Photo provided by NOAA Fisheries)
Fisheries observers in Alaska face workplace harassment, intimidation and assault at much higher rates than are reported, but the true prevalence is unknown as incidents largely go unreported, according to a new multiyear study.
Observers work alongside fishing crews to document scientific fisheries data essential to fisheries management, nontargeted species harvested as bycatch, and potential law violations of commercial fisheries operations, as mandated by federal law. Observers’ assignments can be aboard vessels or onshore locations such as harbors or processing plants, and can range from a few days to several weeks at sea.
The study focused on observers working in Alaska’s North Pacific groundfish and halibut fishery, which spans from the Bering Sea, to the Aleutian Islands and the Gulf of Alaska — the largest fisheries monitoring program in the United States.
“Observers find themselves labeled by industry members as ‘fish cops’ or ‘snitches,’ have been subject to intimidation, harassment, and assault (including sexual assault and rape), and have even gone missing at sea,” according to research cited in the study.
Study results estimate 45% of those who experienced harassment disclosed the issue in a given year, and that true prevalence of harassment varied from 22% to 38% of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration observers each year.
Researchers with the Alaska office of the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, and special agents at the Alaska Office of Law Enforcement, conducted the study from 2016 to 2022. Researchers say this is the first study to estimate rates of victimization and disclosure in a fisheries observer program.
“The goal of the project was really to discover what is the true victimization rate, trying to account for that problem we have in all crimes, which is underreporting,” said Craig Faunce, a study co-author. He is a research fisheries biologist with NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Fisheries Science Center.
The study used anonymous surveys and official statements to assess rates of victimization and disclosure, in an effort to understand rates of workplace bullying, intimidation and harassment, known as victimization, and to help improve safety.
Many NOAA observers reported multiple types of harassment. Researchers found that disclosing incidents was not influenced by gender or experience, but largely influenced by the type of harassment.
Among official reports of harassment made by observers from 2016 to 2022, 18% reported sexual assault, 57% reported assault, and 37% reported intimidation, coercion and a hostile work environment.
Among the anonymous surveys, just over half of the 471 survey respondents reported some form of harassment. Similar to the official reports, respondents experienced intimidation, coercion and hostile work environments most frequently, followed by sexual harassment and assault. Of those respondents who experienced sexual harassment, 33% experienced sexual assault.
Observers’ ages ranged from 19 to 69 years old, and most were 29 years old or younger. Researchers noted the demographics did not match the workforce: more observers were men year after year, but more women responded to the survey.
In the anonymous surveys, researchers asked whether observers disclosed harassment and estimated victimization rates based on numbers of observers in the fishery each year, an estimated 350 to 400 in North Pacific fisheries. The results show a range of victimization rates, correcting for biases in self-selection and participating in surveys.
Female observers were twice as likely as male observers to experience victimization. Researchers estimated 24%-60% of women and 12%-24% of men were victimized each year.
The rates of victimization among women saw a steady increase since 2017, which researchers attribute to an increase in female participation in the observer workforce.
Each year, they estimate 0.4% to 1.8% of observers experienced assault, 22% to 34% experienced intimidation, coercion and hostile work environments, and 9% to 43% experienced sexual harassment.
Researchers found many reasons for nondisclosure of incidents. Most respondents, 52%, reported not perceiving the harassment as a big deal. Many respondents, 47%, reported they thought nothing would be done about it; 29% said they did not want to get someone in trouble; 21% feared retaliation; 16% felt guilty; and 15% said they did not want anyone to know what happened. An estimated 12% reported not trusting their employer or NOAA staff, and less than 10% cited other reasons, including avoiding going to court, thinking it was too late to report, or fear of losing their job.
Researchers acknowledged that the study could not capture the frequency of incidents, and they said some observers made multiple official reports of harassment. The remoteness and isolation of the job aboard at-sea vessels is particularly troubling, they noted, and observers may find themselves stuck in workplace conditions and experiencing harassment on a daily basis. Observers have been required to perform tasks outside of their job duties.
“These examples include, but are not limited to, shuck scallops, clean the slime line, measure crab, or even cook for the crew,” said Julie Dale McNeese in an oral testimony to the U.S. Congress in 2020, cited in the study. “These duties are not part of the observer’s job, and the intent is to remove them from their assigned position so they are not able to perform their job functions.
“Therein lies the power and control. If an observer refuses to participate in these behaviors, they are not part of the team; and if they do participate, the crew then can hold over their heads that they were not at their assigned job. These harmful behaviors can escalate quickly and result in the observers not having access to food, sleeping quarters, bathroom facilities, or the captain’s deck,” McNeese said.
The National Fisheries Observer program includes harassment awareness training for observers, and encourages each employee to report any incident of harassment or assault. The agency has a hotline, NOAA’s Sexual Assault/Sexual Harassment Helpline, to report and provide resources for any incident of sexual harassment or assault. It’s operated in partnership with the nonprofit Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization.
The results of the study highlights the need for collaboration between regulatory agencies and the fishing industry, Faunce said.
“So you want to encourage a culture that does not endorse harassment of observers, right? And you have to talk to each other in order to do that. And so collaboration and communication is really, really important,” Faunce said, pointing to fisheries data as essential for stock assessment and the sustainability of fisheries.
“The more we can get observers seen as collaborators in the seafaring and maritime workforce, and less as adversarial entities, the better,” he said.
The extent to which workplace harassment impacts observer reporting and data collection is largely unknown.
“It’d be great to have some future studies look more carefully at that,” said Lacey Jeroue, co-author and project manager with the Alaska Marine Mammal Observer Program with the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, a partner with NOAA. “But, if you are being harassed on a daily basis, you’re less likely to show up for work. You might avoid certain areas of a vessel. You might leave your job in a lot of cases. … So it impacts not just the individual, but it impacts the data that comes out of it, and the state’s sustainability of the fishery, when the data being collected might have some holes and gaps in it from an observer not being able to perform their job to the full extent that they need to.”
Jeroue emphasized that all incident reports are read and documented. “Those experiences are being taken seriously and not just shoved into a folder,” Jeroue said. “We really appreciate the work that they do and the time that they took to fill out those anonymous surveys. Without them completing the surveys, we wouldn’t be able to do this work at all.”
The study was released at a time when significant reductions are being made to the federal workforce. It’s not yet clear whether those reductions will affect the fisheries observer program. A spokesperson with NOAA Fisheries declined to comment on the issue.
In 2023, NOAA released a notice on preventing observer harassment reminding vessel owners and operators of their responsibility to provide a safe workplace environment.
“Enforcement investigations on the deterrence and detection of observer sexual assault, assault, harassment, observer safety, interference, and significant sample bias violations are our highest priority,” said James Binniker, director, NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement in a statement with the release of the study.
“There is zero tolerance for assault or harassment of observers in any form, and criminal prosecution will be sought for the most serious of these incidents,” Binniker said.
Binniker said NOAA encourages any observer who feels they may have been a victim of harassment to contact the agency’s 24-hour law enforcement hotline, at 800-853-1964.
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