This is a dictation from our weekly podcast located here: https://youtu.be/32TyuuUQYSI
This is just an article that I saw In-Fishermen, I don't know if you guys get that magazine. They always have really good articles. I can sit and read this magazine. There's not too many magazines out there that I can just kind of sit down and pick up quite a few articles out of it. Usually I'm getting a magazine that has one or two articles or there's somebody that I like and they wrote an article, and that's the only reason why I bought the magazine. But this one here, In-Fishermen, I don't know what it is about In-Fishermen they just have a quality product there.
Anyway, what they talked about was they did a comparison of ice fishing injuries versus regular fishing injuries and they wanted to see what type of fishing is more dangerous, which I thought was an interesting... This was an actual study by the way... that's done by doctors. If you do want to read the article, this is volume 45, number 7. Look for that magazine. The article's in there.
Anyway, they say there that ice fishing does seem to have more injuries than regular fishing. And it kind of makes sense, right? When you think about the equipment that we use for ice fishing versus the equipment you use for regular fishing, there is a lot more stuff close to you. You're not standing behind your boat motor while you start it up. The most you're probably going to get is a hook somewhere.
But really, summer fishing isn't all that dangerous. But winter fishing however is.
They broke the injuries down into I think six different types. And they've given it kind of like a percentage mark of how many they see compared to some of the other injuries.
The first one and the biggest percentage of injuries that they see from ice fishing is orthopedic or musculoskeletal. That's what they assume likely related to slips on the ice. It's super important. That's 46%. Of all the ice fishing industry injuries they see almost half of them are because people slipped on the ice.
Right there - 100% be careful. Maybe get some ice cleats. Don't be messing around too much. It's slippery. You should know that. There's ice out there and ice is slippery, so be careful.
The next one is minor trauma. They call this lacerations, abrasions, contusions, punctures, hook injuries, that's at 37% guys. That's kind of still high. So be careful out there.
They don't really say kind of where this comes from but we've heard it. There's guys with augers, they've gone through boots. Of course hooks. Whether it be that fish gets up to the hole and that hook pops out, it's going to stick you. Just messing around. Be careful out there. That's the second thing that you could possibly be hurt with while you're ice fishing. So be careful with your hooks, and your augers, and your ice chisels. Be careful of pointy and sharp.
The next one was major trauma. I found it interesting that major trauma was less than minor trauma, but major trauma, they're talking like amputation, organ or space injury, and close head injury, so like concussions. That's 6%. It's a huge drop off from those two first ones, slips and falls and pointy stuff. Major trauma drops down quite a bit, 6%.
The next one though is hot thermal injuries. They suggest this is probably because of heaters. And I've heard some stories with ice huts burning down, people's legs getting caught on fire. But those heaters, man, be careful around those heaters. They can hurt you too, especially if you take that grill off. If you take that grill off and you're trying to cook some hot dogs or something like that, that's close. If you get too close you're going to get hurt.
The next one is immersion and drowning, which is interesting to me. It's only 5%. That is not a lot. At least people are careful. They're being super careful out there. And same with cold thermal injuries, which I assume is the opposite of the hot thermal injuries, so frostbite, hypothermia, stuff like that. That's like 1%. It was interesting to kind of read this. The stuff that you think you'd see a lot of, like hypothermia, frostbite, going through the ice, all that stuff, the stuff that you hear people constantly berating you, "Four inches or more! Four inches or more!" those are not high on the list of injuries that you could get while you're ice fishing. And maybe that's because people are just constantly saying don't fall through the ice.
Maybe we should have more people saying watch out for the pointy stuff! Watch out for the pointy stuff! Don't run on the ice! Maybe we should have like big signs coming on to the ice. Like when you're at the pool and along the side of the pool it says don't run, maybe we should do that on the entryways onto the lakes. Don't run! Watch for the pointy stuff! Let's bring those numbers down, 37% and 46%. Let's bring those down.
Interesting part, at the end of it, basically they said like 80% of all the injuries, whether it be any of those on the list. The people who are having the problem are young males who are inebriated. That's your injuries on ice. Be careful guys, your injuries on ice!