Between 22 and 38 percent of NOAA observers who board fishing boats in Alaska’s North Pacific to collect harvest and bycatch data experience harassment on the job, but fewer than half report the incidents, according to newly published findings from the agency.
In a study released in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, experts found that as many as 43 percent of fisheries observers in Alaska between 2016 and 2022 faced sexual harassment, while up to 34 percent faced “intimidation, coercion and hostile work environments” while doing their jobs.
About one-third of the estimated 350 to 400 observers in the region experienced victimization annually. Women were twice as likely to be victimized as men.
The study, led by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, focused on NOAA’s two largest observer programs — the North Pacific Groundfish and Halibut Observer programs — where observers who work “in remote ports and onboard fishing vessels often face isolated, high-risk environments, making them vulnerable to sexual harassment, intimidation, and assault.”
