Unpublished, 2025

A 6,000-word investigation reported along the New England coast, the piece opens with the preventable drowning of a fisherman and expands into the first comprehensive look at America’s most hazardous trade.

 

Drawing on interviews with fishermen, widows, opioid recovery providers, senior Coast Guard officials, and lawyers - alongside original data analysis - the piece exposes the flaws in America's safety standards. Both systemic and human, it explores how survival in U.S. fishing is shaped as much by policy and economics as by weather and sea.