November 2, 2021 — A new investigation has exposed how China is defying international law to carry out illegal fishing operations in Somali water, while subjecting foreign crew to mistreatment.
A new Environmental Justice Foundation report claims six Chinese fishing vessels entered Somali waters without permission and used prohibited fishing gear, such as trawl nets, in fishing zones that have been reserved for Somali fishing communities.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
July 1, 2021 — The On the Hook campaign has relaunched, shifting its focus back towards the pursuit of a “full, external, independent, and forensic review” of the Marine Stewardship Council’s standards and operation.
On the Hook was first founded in 2017 to challenge the Marine Stewardship Council’s certification of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement’s tuna fishery, the world’s largest.
February 26, 2021 — After being at sea for two long years, 37-year-old Indonesian fisherman Darmaji finally stepped off the Taiwanese tuna fishing vessel he had been working on and back onto firm ground in May of 2020. Verbally abused daily, Darmaji’s largely Indonesian crew of 22 often worked 18-hour days—even when seven-meter waves flooded the boat interior—and were typically allowed to sleep for only three hours. Meals consisted of gummy rice, boiled chicken or fish, and, at times, even bait fish. The crew had to pay for any other food they consumed and drank largely distilled saltwater.
As if the daily indignities weren’t enough, Darmaji didn’t receive the full pay he was promised in his contract, and even had to pay a $1,200 security deposit before receiving his monthly salary. “It’s a prison at sea,” Darmaji said.
Lured by the promise of high wages offered by recruitment agencies, Darmaji is one of an estimated 23,500 Indonesians working on foreign boats. Globally, capture fishing employs 27 million people, primarily from developing countries. Indonesia is one of the biggest sources of cheap migrant labor for fishing fleets from China, South Korea, and Taiwan.
Darmaji experienced verbal abuse, debt manipulation, underpayment, and atrocious living conditions, but he is one of the luckier ones—thousands of other forced laborers also endure physical abuse at sea. Beatings for insubordination are not uncommon, said Max Schmid, deputy director at the Environmental Justice Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to raise public awareness of environmental and human rights abuses. One worker described getting locked in a freezer, and later electrocuted with a tool used to kill tuna, he notes. Schmid and colleagues have interviewed hundreds of Indonesian fishermen about working conditions on distant water fishing vessels mainly flagged to Taiwan, China or South Korea; over 20 percent of them described physical violence.
February 3, 2021 — An investigation by the Advocate for Public Interest Law (APIL) and the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) has found that migrant workers onboard South Korea’s distant-water fishing fleet – which fishes for products eventually shipped to the U.S., European Union, and United Kingdom – are subject to abuse.
The investigation of 40 vessels – of which 29 are authorized to export to the E.U. and U.K. – found that the crew of many vessels reported “violent attacks and illegal activities,” a release from the two organizations said. Of 54 Indonesian former crew interviewed, more than a quarter reported experiencing physical abuse, and 63 percent reported verbal abuse.
October 22, 2020 — Fisheries officials from the European Union, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States have met to discuss cooperation on limiting the use of flags of convenience by distant-water fishery companies involved in illegal fishing.
The online meeting, which took place 15 October, follows a report by the advocacy group Environmental Justice Foundation criticizing the process whereby fishing companies buy flags from flag states, which are then unwilling or unable to monitor the activity of problem trawlers. The report, “Off the Hook: How Flags of Convenience Let Illegal Fishing Go Unpunished,” details the damage that flags of convenience cause to fisheries and how they are used to conduct illegal fishing. In the report, EJF calls for sanctions to end the practice and more transparency surrounding the registration of fishing vessels.
May 14, 2020 — Conservationists are calling for an investigation into alleged illegal fishing by a Chinese tuna company that kept Indonesian seamen as virtual slaves, leading to the deaths of four of them.
China’s Dalian Ocean Fishing Co. Ltd. has been under scrutiny after reports in early May linked four of its high-seas boats — Long Xing 629, Long Xing 802, Long Xing 605 and Tian Yu 08 — to the human rights abuses of its Indonesian crew members. Four Indonesians died between December 2019 and April 2020 due to the hazardous working conditions on board the boats. The bodies of three of them were dumped overboard for fear of infection, sparking a diplomatic outcry from Jakarta.
Migrant boat crews from Southeast Asia are seen as a source of cheap labor, making up a large proportion of Asia’s distant-water fleets. But deadly conditions await the workers aboard the vessels, such as overwork, having their wages withheld, being forced into debt bondage, and experiencing physical and sexual violence.
The Indonesian government has condemned the abuses of the Indonesian crew on the Chinese boats and called on Beijing to investigate the matter. But conservationists are also calling for both countries to look into allegations that the boats were engaged in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU).
December 17, 2019 — Greenpeace USA, AFL-CIO, Human Rights Watch, Environmental Justice Foundation, Whole Foods Market, and 19 other groups have sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Labor requesting the organization end its practice of only considering a country’s territorial waters when creating its List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor.
The letter, sent to Marcia Eugenio – the director of the Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking for the Bureau of International Affairs with the Department of Labor – comes in the wake of a damning report by Greenpeace identifying forced labor issues in Southeast Asia. The new report includes accusations of forced labor against 13 distant-water fishing vessels registered in China, Taiwan, Vanuatu, and Fiji.
November 20, 2019 — A new report by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) details of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing practices and child labor – from children as young as 11 – in distant water fishing vessels.
The report, titled “Caught in the net,” surveyed 239 crew from 41 Vietnamese fishing vessels that had been detained while fishing illegally in Thai waters. According to the report, which has been picked up by some international media, fishermen from Vietnam have been forced to travel outside their own waters due to the lack of any resources in their own country.
October 23, 2019 — Thailand Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan has confirmed his country will continue to reform its seafood industry, despite mounting pressure from domestic fishing groups..
Wongsuwan made the statement in an 18 October meeting with Environmental Justice Foundation Executive Director Steve Trent, according to EJF.
September 19, 2019 — A list of demands from the National Fishing Association of Thailand (NFAT) – shared with Thai government officials in a closed-door meeting – could “derail the reform of the country’s fisheries,” according to the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) and its sources.
NFAT’s demands include lifting all restrictions on crew and catch transfers at sea, as well as being allowed to fish for much longer without the obligation to record exact fishing locations, EJF said. Additionally, the group has called for vessels that lost their licenses in 2015 to be allowed to fish once more, and for the abolishment of annual inspections of vessels and crew. It has also requested that age restrictions on fishing be relaxed, and that operators be given the capability to revise crew lists for many hours after leaving port.