Understanding fatigue in the fishing industry: a case study of biodata collected at-home and at sea

Measurement of fatigue in the marine industry is a critical aspect of safe operations on water. Countless incidents have been linked to fatigue, particularly those involving navigation. This paper focuses on a case study to explore the impact of fatigue on bridge operations onboard a fishing trawler. The data was selected from a larger project used to develop an interactive fatigue risk identification application involving several other crew positions. The specific focus on this case includes 56 days of data collection occurring over a period that spanned time both at sea and at home. The collected data includes objective (heart rate and reaction time) and subjective (fatigue rating, sleep quality, and activity logs) data as well as vessel environmental and movement data. Results indicated that there was a noticeable difference between at-sea versus at-home heart rate, and ratings of mental fatigue. Visual analyses of the data reveals that there was minimal change in nearly all of the variables collected during the at sea time blocks. Collecting data in a dynamic environment poses a number of challenges; however, it also provides the opportunity to contextualize the data from a macroenvironmental perspective and allows for an identification of factors which contribute to a change in fatigue. Future studies should strive to include vessel/workspace environmental data whenever possible.