title: The role of evidence, standards and education in rock fishing safety in New South Wales, Australia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine rock fishing-related fatalities and hospitalisations, identify initiatives aimed at improving safety and survey key rock fishing stakeholders about the strengths and limitations of each initiative.
  
  
  METHODS
  This research obtained information from mortality and hospitalisation statistics, the published literature and key stakeholders for opinions on the strengths, limitations and improvements for rock fishing safety initiatives.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Injury patterns involving rock fishers have largely remained unchanged over time. The literature revealed that many rock fishing safety initiatives focused on awareness raising and engineering initiatives, but ignored the development of guidelines and the use of enforcement strategies. There had been limited evaluations conducted of any of the initiatives reviewed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is likely that a combination of evidence-based, standard-focused and education initiatives would be useful in improving rock fishing safety in NSW, provided that the impact of these initiatives were routinely evaluated.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Information from this research will be used to inform preventive strategies aimed at improving rock fishing safety through better coordination of the role of evidence in informing standards and practices and the continued evaluation of these initiatives.
authors.affiliation: Transport and Road Safety (TARS) Research, University of New South Wales.
authors.forename: Rebecca J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ware
authors.forename: Mike R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Bambach
mesh_terms: D000056:Accident Prevention; D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009017:Morbidity; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012449:Safety; D013177:Sports; D014867:Water; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014867:Water
keywords: education; evidence; rock fishing; standards; water safety