Hawaii Archives - Page 47 of 65

Foreign fishermen settle human trafficking suit

January 3, 2018 — Two Indonesian fishermen who say they were enslaved on an American fishing boat have settled their lawsuit against the vessel’s owner seven years after escaping and receiving special U.S. visas as victims of human trafficking, their lawyers told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The attorneys said Sorihin, who uses just one name, and Abdul Fatah settled their lawsuit against Thoai Van Nguyen, the California-based owner and captain of the Sea Queen II.

The settlement outlines steps Nguyen must take to continue to fish but does not disclose a financial award. The captain denies all allegations of abuse or human trafficking and has always followed federal laws when employing foreign crews, Nguyen’s attorney said.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. court in San Francisco claimed the men were trafficked through the Hawaii longline fishing fleet and forced to work on the boat around Hawaii and off the shores of California.

Citing federal and international human trafficking laws, the suit sought an unspecified amount of money for fees they paid and compensation they were promised along with damages for mental anguish and pain.

The lawsuit was being prepared as a 2016 Associated Press investigation revealed the Hawaii fleet operates under a loophole in federal law that allows owners to use foreign laborers with no work visas or the ability to legally enter the United States. The lawsuit was in the works when the AP reported on the men’s ordeal.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Washington Post

Coast Guard cites fishing boat for illegal foreign captain

January 1, 2018 — HONOLULU — The U.S. Coast Guard said Friday it found a foreign worker acting as the captain of an American-flagged commercial fishing vessel in federal waters off Hawaii.

The crew of the U.S. Cutter Oliver Berry boarded the unnamed vessel on Dec. 19 and issued a citation after they suspected a foreign national was acting as the captain and operating the boat, the Coast Guard said in a statement .

It’s illegal for a foreign national to operate a U.S.-flagged commercial vessel.

The Coast Guard said the vessel was cited for a violation known as a “paper captain.” The Coast Guard Hearing Office will review the violation and consider further legal action.

Officials boarded a total of six Hawaii-based commercial fishing vessels during a 10-day patrol. They issued eight violations.

A 2016 Associated Press investigation revealed the Hawaii fleet operates under a loophole in federal law that allows owners to use foreign laborers with no U.S. visas to work in the fleet.

While most U.S. fishing fleets are required to have 75 percent U.S. citizens as crews, the Pacific boats that target highly migratory species like tuna are allowed to have only one American, the captain, aboard.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at AM970

US appeals court: Feds erred in Hawaii fishery expansion

December 29, 2017 — HONOLULU — Federal agencies were wrong to allow Hawaii’s longline swordfish industry to expand fishing efforts while allowing the hooking or entangling of more endangered sea turtles, a U.S. appeals court ruled.

The panel of judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to consider scientific data that showed the loggerhead turtle population would significantly decline when it set limits for the industry. The judges also said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service illegally allowed the industry to kill protected migratory birds.

Swordfish longline fishing involves hundreds of baited hooks on miles of line. The practice can ensnare birds, turtles and other marine life.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Hawaii Tribune-Herald

Should Papahanaumokuakea Be Open For Business?

November 22, 2017 — Republican House members are urging President Trump to “think big” in his ongoing review of 27 national monuments, including opening up the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument not just to commercial fishing — but to oil, gas and mineral exploration.

The Trump administration has been pondering the future of the monuments for months, with a final announcement expected in December.

The proposal to open Papahanaumokuakea to commercial uses came in a Nov. 9 letter from a group of 24 Republicans who are active in the western caucus.

The letter writers want the boundaries of three of the four Pacific reserves — Pacific Remote Islands, Rose Atoll and Papahanaumokuakea — to be reduced in size and fishing restrictions to be lifted in all of the reserves.

But they only mentioned the possibility of energy extraction for Papahanaumokuakea and the Pacific Remote Islands reserve.

Problem is, there is no oil and gas development potential at Papahanamokuakea. The fight in Hawaii has been over whether to loosen commercial fishing restrictions in the monument

“It’s not applicable,” said William Aila Jr., former chairman of the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources who’s now deputy director of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. “There is no oil or gas at Papahanaumokuakea.”

He said the only possible resource of that kind is something known as “manganese nodules,” metallic minerals found in rock-like formations in deep water on the seabed. But Aila said that it is so costly and difficult to obtain minerals in such remote locations that it is more “futuristic” than a viable economic opportunity.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat

Public skeptical of Navy bombing plans

November 10, 2017 — HILO, Hawaii — Despite Navy assurances that the military is using the latest science to protect marine mammals during bombing and sonar training exercises, most of the approximately 75 people attending a public meeting Thursday evening remained skeptical.

The meeting, the final of four across the Hawaiian islands, is part of the Navy’s draft environmental impact statement seeking permission from the National Marine Fisheries Service to continue military training activity over the next five years.

Capt. Vinnie Johnson, commanding officer, Pacific Missile Range Facility, said the Navy can remain stewards of the environment and protect marine mammals while conducting tests that are necessary for defense of the nation.

“We can be responsible stewards of natural resources, we can be responsible stewards of cultural resources and we can be responsible stewards of our community,” Johnson said.

Officials said mitigation measures such as trained lookouts aboard ships who halt exercises if marine mammals are seen in the vicinity and extra precautions during humpback whale season keep harm to a minimum.

Fewer than .03 percent of mammals are expected to die from testing, although many more could experience temporary behavioral effects, they said. Disorientation, fleeing the area, or in extreme cases, beaching can occur when the mammals’ activity is impaired by noises from bombing and sonar.

Johnson said the Navy was not testing prior to a beaching last month of pilot whales on Kauai, which resulted in five whale deaths. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists are still investigating.

Members of the public, bringing their messages through speeches, on paper, through oli and even in song, weren’t buying it. Impassioned speeches urged the military to clean up areas it’s already polluted before continuing bombing practices.

Read the full story at West Hawaii Today

Hawaii congressional delegation seeks to improve conditions for foreign workers in the state commercial fishing fleet

November 10, 2017 — Members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation have filed bills that would extend visas to foreign fishermen working on fishing boats in the state.

The moves come more than a year after the Associated Press first reported allegations of labor abuses on commercial vessels. Reporters found about 700 undocumented workers, mainly from Southeast Asia and Pacific island countries, who work for less than USD 1.00 (EUR 0.86) an hour. The AP’s reports indicated those individuals also have been subjected to working long hours and living in squalor.

U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) filed S.B. 2071, named the “Sustainable Fishing Workforce Protection Act,” filed the bill last week. In addition to giving visas to the workers, the Democratic senator’s bill also would detail what federal agencies have authority over the health and safety issues concerning Hawaii’s commercial fishing fleet.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

HAWAII: Navy seeks to resume sonar, explosives testing around Big Island

November 8, 2017 — The U.S. Navy wants to resume deploying sonar and explosives around the Big Island and Maui where it cut back after a 2015 lawsuit.

The Navy is holding public hearings on each island this week on a draft environmental impact statement seeking permission from the National Marine Fisheries Service for increased military training activity in those areas and others over the next five years.

The final public hearing, the only one on the Big Island, is set for 4-8 p.m. Thursday at Waiakea High School in Hilo.

“This draft EIS/OEIS supports the Navy’s increased focus on live training to meet evolving surface warfare challenges,” the Navy states in the document. “This results in a proposed increase in levels of air-to-surface warfare activities and an increased reliance on the use of non-explosive and explosive rockets, missiles and bombs.”

It’s a given that the training is harmful to some marine mammals such as whales and dolphins. At issue is how much harm the mammals — many of them protected under the Endangered Species Act — will experience and what the Navy will do to reduce harm.

The draft EIS anticipates minimal harm from its training activities, saying only .03 percent of affected marine mammals will experience injury or death.

Read the full story at West Hawaii Today

Bill introduced allowing Hawaii’s foreign fishermen onshore

November 2, 2017 — HONOLULU — Hundreds of foreign fishermen currently confined to vessels in Honolulu for years at a time would be allowed to come ashore when they dock under legislation introduced Thursday in Congress.

The Sustainable Fishing Workforce Protection Act offers workplace protections a year after an Associated Press investigation found that Hawaii’s commercial fishing fleet is crewed by about 700 men who are never allowed off their boats, even when they come into the Honolulu Harbor to unload their catch.

Just a few miles from the sands of Waikiki, they work without visas, some making less than $1 an hour. Conditions vary – while some of the 140 boats are clean and safe, AP found some fishing crews living in squalor, forced to use buckets instead of toilets and suffering running sores from bed bugs. There have been instances of human trafficking, active tuberculosis and low food supplies.

They lack most basic labor protections during their one or two year stints onboard, catching premium tuna and swordfish sold at some of America’s most upscale grocery stores, hotels and restaurants.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WPXI News

Bill introduced allowing Hawaii’s foreign fishermen onshore

Just a few miles from the sands of Waikiki, they work without visas, some making less than $1 an hour. Conditions vary — while some of the 140 boats are clean and safe, AP found some fishing crews living in squalor, forced to use buckets instead of toilets and suffering running sores from bed bugs. There have been instances of human trafficking, active tuberculosis and low food supplies.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Longline fishing industry scrutinized for hiring of foreign fishermen

November 2, 2017 — HONOLULU — The Hawaii Longline Association has jumped into a legal fight they say threatens their livelihood. Longliners oppose a Maui fisherman’s complaint against the state.

In a Circuit Court filing, the association defends its practice of hiring fishermen from foreign countries and challenges a lawsuit filed by fisherman Malama Chun.

He demands the state stop issuing commercial fishing licenses to foreign fishermen.

“The folks that make up the majority of the longline fishing boats are not lawfully admitted to the United States. When they get here, they’re subject to deportation orders that the boat captains hold,” said Chun’s attorney Lance Collins.

But Longline Association president Sean Martin said there’s nothing illegal about the state’s licensing practices.

Read the full story at HawaiiNewsNow