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Insurance shellfish farms may want to consider.
The coverage options you may want to include with your shellfish farm insurance policy depend on multiple different factors. For the most part, commercial property insurance is necessary to help provide coverage for your buildings and equipment. General liability insurance is helpful to have in order to help cover bodily injury or property damage caused by your business or your employees. As a shellfish farm, you’ll also be reliant on boats and other watercraft, in which case you’ll need commercial hull insurance to help keep them covered should they become damaged. And if you transport shellfish on the road, a business auto insurance policy is important to have in the event of an auto accident while driving business vehicles.
Coverage that’s unique to the shellfish farming industry.
Because your shellfish farm relies on the shellfish you harvest to prosper, having livestock coverage may help cover your business in the event that your aquatic livestock is damaged or destroyed by pollution, theft, disease, storms, and other named perils in your specific policy. In addition, protection and indemnity insurance offers coverage for maritime-related risks, excluding workers’ compensation coverage. Also, you may want to consider a maritime employers liability insurance policy (also known as Jones Act insurance) to help cover the costs of lawsuits and claims from employees who suffer injury, illness, or death caused by the negligence of other crew members or your business.
Jones Act insurance may provide coverage for workers while working on a vessel if they are injured due to the nature of working on a ship, or due to negligence.
What are the common risks to shellfish farmers?
The most dangerous risks involve the work environment: the open waters. The hazards of working in or around water are more than a traditional farm setting, and cannot be overlooked when considering coverage for your shellfish farming operation. For example, an employee could be injured, become ill, or even die while working on a vessel. Having coverage for your employees and the increased risks they face is essential due to the potential expense of lawsuits and claims that could arise. Other risks to consider involve business interruption, whether it’s due to damaged or lost equipment and boats to harvest shellfish, or the death, disease, and loss of aquatic livestock that causes your production to slow. These are considerations to make when developing your shellfish farm insurance policy.
The business side of your operations.
As unique as this industry may be, there are still some insurance coverages that most businesses need regardless of industry. For example, if your business keeps any digital records or does business online, a cyber liability insurance policy may help protect against financial losses associated with a hack or data breach. Also, employment practice liability insurance may help cover the costs of defending allegations of discriminatory hiring, promotion, and firing practices.
Are you ready to get shellfish farm insurance coverage to help protect your day-to-day operations? Contact us to discuss your coverage options.