Background/Purpose: Commercial fishing remains one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States with a fatal work injury rate 22 times the all-worker rate. Two mobile apps, FVdrills and SCraMP, have been developed to address safety issues: FVdrills to help run drills and SCraMP to monitor vessel stability. We assessed fishing vessel captains’ perceptions of FVdrills and SCraMP.

Methods: Participants were commercial fishing vessel captains operating out of ports in the northeastern United States. We asked participants how they use mobile devices and asked captains with iOS devices to test either FVdrills or SCraMP during normal fishing operations, and then asked about their use and opinions of the app after one month.

Results/Outcomes: To date, 33 participants have met all eligibility criteria and completed both baseline and follow-up questionnaires. Of the six participants who installed FVdrills, five (83.3%) said it was “easy to use”, only one (16.7%) said they “need more training to use FVdrills”, and four (66.7%) said they “plan to continue using FVdrills in the future”. Of the five participants who installed SCraMP, only one (20%) said it was “easy to use”, three (60%) said they “need more training to use SCraMP”, and only two (40%) said they “plan to continue using SCraMP in the future”.

Conclusions: Preliminary feedback suggests that commercial fishing captains generally like FVdrills, but are less interested in SCraMP and find it difficult to use. Making mobile apps more user-friendly could increase the interest in using such apps for commercial fishing safety.