Abstract
Marine aquaculture occupational health and safety (OHS) is under-studied globally. Research indicates the sector is associated with diverse hazards and high injury and fatality rates. Norway is the world's largest producer of Atlantic salmon. Its aquaculture OHS regulatory system is thought to be the best globally, pointing to the potential value of comparing Norway's system with those in other countries. With a focus on indicators of regulatory effectiveness, this paper compares the aquaculture OHS systems in Norway and Canada. The Canadian marine aquaculture industry, while smaller and more diverse than the one in Norway, is also important globally. Regulatory effectiveness is defined here as the capacity of OHS systems to prevent injury and illness and promote the occupational health of labour forces. Indicators of effectiveness explored here include surveillance and inter-agency coordination; regulatory and organizational capacities to anticipate, identify and assess, and intervene to reduce hazards and promote health, and constraints on workers' ability to exercise their OHS rights – particularly in Canada. The analysis is based on a narrative review of relevant existing Norwegian and Canada research supplemented, in the Canadian case, by a review of the relevant aquaculture OHS regulations, standards and Transportation Safety reports and other sources. National differences in industry structure and organization and in their aquaculture OHS regulatory systems are described. Overall findings highlight some ongoing regulatory effectiveness issues in Norway while indicating that there are significantly more and somewhat different challenges and threats to regulatory effectiveness associated with the Canadian context. Some ways regulatory effectiveness might be improved in each context are highlighted. The paper concludes with a discussion of limitations and recommendations for ways to improve the Canadian system.