Saving Seafood

8 Fishermen Killed in Suspected Pirate Attack in Philippines

January 11, 2017 — MANILA, Philippines — Eight Filipino fishermen were fatally shot by at least five suspected pirates who boarded their boat in the southern Philippines, officials said Tuesday.

Seven other crewmembers survived the attack Monday night in waters near Zamboanga City by jumping off the boat and swimming away when the attackers began tying up their colleagues, said Commodore Joel Garcia, head of the Philippine Coast Guard.

“According to the initial investigation, (the attackers) were on board a boat and they were all armed,” he said. “They immediately tied up eight of the crewmen, and the seven others were able to jump out and survive.”

Two of the survivors reached land and reported the massacre to a village leader, who alerted the coast guard. Two vessels were sent to the area, and coast guard personnel found the fishing boat floating with eight bodies on board.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New York Times

Fish caught by slaves may be tainting your cat food

January 3, 2017 — Crack open a can of seafood-flavored cat food and whiff that fishy broth. Now try to guess where those gloopy bits of meat originate.

It’s a futile task. Oftentimes, no one knows quite how they got there, or who hauled those fish aboard which boat. Not even the multinational corporations who sell it on supermarket shelves.

Sure, pet food conglomerates can tell you which factories ground up the fish. They know who mixes in the additives, like tricalcium phosphate, and then dumps it into a can.

But the men who actually yanked it out of the sea? They’re usually anonymous, obscured by a murky supply chain.

That’s unfortunate. Because much of the pet food sold in the West is supplied by a Southeast Asian seafood industry, centered in Thailand, that is infamous for its use of forced labor.

For years, this industry has been scandalized by reports of human trafficking and even outright slavery. The victims are men from Myanmar and Cambodia, duped by human traffickers.

Here’s how the scam works. Traffickers promise desperate men a job on a factory or farm in Thailand — a relatively prosperous country compared to its poverty-stricken neighbors.

But there is no legit job. The victims are instead forced onto squalid trawlers. Once the boats leave port, they enter a lawless sea, and the men are forced to toil without pay — sometimes for years on end.

Read the full story at PRI

MATTHEW DALY: Congress must help Hawaii fishermen confined to boats

December 7th, 2016 — Congress should act immediately to improve slave-like conditions for hundreds of foreign fishermen working in Hawaii’s commercial fleet, speakers at a congressional forum said Tuesday.

“These fishermen are treated like disposable people,” said Mark Lagon, a scholar at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, who told the forum the fishermen live like modern-day slaves. Crew members earn less than $1 per hour, and total costs for crews of nine or 10 men are less than the cost of ice to keep the fish fresh, Lagon said.

“Slavery is not just some abstract concept,” said Lagon, the former director of a State Department office to monitor and combat human trafficking.

Slavery “is something that touches our lives. It goes into our stores, and it goes into our mouths,” Lagon said.

Lagon was one of several speakers at a forum Tuesday on slavery and human rights abuses at sea. The forum, sponsored by Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee, followed an Associated Press investigation that found fishermen have been confined to vessels for years without basic labor protections.

The AP report found that commercial fishing boats in Honolulu employ hundreds of men from impoverished Southeast Asia and Pacific Island nations who catch swordfish, ahi tuna and other seafood sold at markets and restaurants nationwide. A legal loophole allows the men to work on American-owned, U.S-flagged boats without visas as long as they don’t set foot on shore.

Fishing “is used as a tool for slavery,” said Kathryn Xian, executive director of the Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, a Honolulu-based advocacy group.

Read the op-ed at The Seattle Times 

China’s top fisheries official lashes out at ‘Cold War’ criticism of international fisheries expansion

November 23, 2016 — China’s most senior fisheries official, Yu Kangzhen, has lambasted his foreign counterparts for taking a ‘Cold War’ view of China’s international fishing ambitions.

Established fishing nations are seeking to “blockade” the development of Chinese fishing vessels overseas, Yu, the vice minister for agriculture with responsibility for fisheries, told a gathering of diplomats and officials attending the annual fishery expo in Qingdao.

China accounts for 17 percent of catches in international waters “and this is our rightful share,” Yu told his guests. In unusually blunt language, Yu told critics to “look fairly” at China’s long-distance fishing development and stop “looking through tinted glasses” while criticizing Chinese fishing in international waters.

Fishery officials in both developed and developing nations have disparaged the opaque nature of Chinese data on fish landings as well as China’s track record of secretive access deals with poorer countries.

“We produce 6.6 million tons of aquatic products in a year but only 1.8 percent of that comes from long-distance fishing,” Yu said.

China’s overseas trawlers are “old” and need modernizing, Yu said. China is a “big fishing country but not a strong fishery country,” he said.

Nonetheless, China will increase the scale of its operations in international waters, he told the assembled officials, including Canadian fishery officials and Iceland’s and Ireland’s ambassadors to China.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

‘Indiana Jones’ shark gains protection at Cites meeting

October 4, 2016 — Known for its long whip-like tail, the threatened Thresher shark is among a number of marine species given extra protection at the Cites meeting.

Devil rays and Silky sharks have also been given additional safeguards.

These shark species have seen huge population falls over the past decades, due to the demands of the shark fin trade.

Devil rays are valued for the gill plates which are used in Chinese medicine.

Campaigners believe the safeguards under Cites will make a real difference to these species survival.

Few sharks protected

It’s estimated that around 100 million sharks of all types are killed in commercial fisheries – with their fins often destined for markets in China and Hong Kong.

Despite the scale of the fishing, there are just eight species given some protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

At the previous Cites meeting in Thailand in 2013, hammerhead, oceanic whitetip and porbeagle sharks were added to Appendix II as well as all species of manta rays.

Appendix II means that trade is allowed but it has to be shown to be sustainable.

Read the full story at the BBC

AP Explore: Seafood from slaves

April 21, 2016 — Over the course of 18 months, Associated Press journalists located men held in cages, tracked ships and stalked refrigerated trucks to expose the abusive practices of the fishing industry in Southeast Asia. The reporters’ dogged effort led to the release of more than 2,000 slaves and traced the seafood they caught to supermarkets and pet food providers across the U.S. For this investigation, AP has won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

Read the articles at the Associated Press

Fishing Amid Territorial Disputes in the South China Sea

April 8, 2016 — CATO, Philippines — As Asian countries jostle for territory in the South China Sea, one Filipino fisherman is taking a stand.

He has faced down Chinese coast guard rifles, and even engaged in a stone-throwing duel with the Chinese last month that shattered two windows on his outrigger.

“They’ll say, ‘Out, out of Scarborough,'” Renato Etac says, referring to Scarborough Shoal, a rocky outcropping claimed by both the Philippines and China. He yells back, “Where is the document that shows Scarborough is Chinese property?”

At one level, the territorial disputes in the South China Sea are a battle of wills between American and Chinese battleships and planes. At another level, they are cat-and-mouse chases between the coast guards of several countries and foreign fishermen, and among the fishing boats themselves.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The New York Times

Indonesia Sinks 23 Foreign Fishing Boats

April 5, 2016 — JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities on Tuesday blew up 23 foreign vessels that were captured for fishing illegally in the country’s waters.

The boats, 13 from Vietnam and 10 from Malaysia, were blown up simultaneously in seven ports from Tarakan in northern Kalimantan to Ranai on the Natuna Islands in the South China Sea.

Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Susi Pudjiastuti witnessed the destruction, which was coordinated by the navy, coast guard and police, via live-streamed Internet video at her office in downtown Jakarta.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The New York Times

New Initiative Seeks to Improve Human Rights Protections in Thailand’s Fishing Sector

WASHINGTON — March 14, 2016 — Renowned Thai human rights and labor advocate Sompong Srakaew has formed a new initiative aimed at ridding Southeast Asia’s seafood sector of human trafficking and other labor abuses.

MAST, the Multi-stakeholder Initiative for Accountable Supply Chain of Thai Fisheries, brings together Mr. Sompong’s Labor Rights Promotion Network Foundation (LPN) and TLCS Legal Advocate Company in Bangkok. Human rights consultancy The Mara Partners and law firm Kelley Drye & Warren LLP are coordinating MAST’s efforts in the U.S.

“MAST will continue the work of reforming Thai fisheries to eliminate human trafficking and all other forms of forced labor, as well as illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing practices,” Mr. Sompong said. “We will work together with civil society, industry, and governments to help put an end to these abuses.”

Mr. Sompong’s LPN, founded in 2004, has advocated for migrant worker rights, conducted raids to free migrant workers in forced labor situations, and helped strengthen The Kingdom of Thailand’s human trafficking laws. As LPN’s founder, Mr. Sompong was recognized by the U.S. State Department with a Trafficking in Persons Hero Award in 2008 for his efforts to combat modern day slavery and improve the lives of migrant workers in Thailand.

MAST’s immediate goals include the creation of a Thai fishermen’s union; the establishment of centers at ports to provide shelter, food, and first aid to fishermen; and the strengthening of public awareness of migrant worker living conditions. It aims to serve as a watchdog to prevent human trafficking and to open a legal clinic for trafficking victims.

MAST will also begin exploring effective and achievable ways to help track and monitor fishing vessels of all sizes and ensure the integrity of the supply chain from the sea to the factory. It seeks to promote full compliance with Thailand’s new law combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and requiring an ethical supply chain.

Nine Thai fishing organizations have already committed to joining MAST’s efforts, including the National Fisheries Association of Thailand, the Pair Trawlers Association of Thailand, and the Coalition of Peeling Sheds. The group will work to build a coalition of governments, international organizations, private sector companies, trade associations, NGOs, human rights lawyers, and academics.

Illegal practices in Thailand’s multi-billion-dollar fishing industry have been the focus of recent reports in international media. Mr. Sompong has been featured discussing the problem on PBS NewsHour and in The Australian.

MAST leaders Sompong Srakaew and Dornnapha Sukkree meet with U.S. Department of Labor officials in Washington. (2016)

The first group of Thai and Burmese workers rescued from Ambon Island, Indonesia by the LPN. The group was provided with food and basic necessities until their safe return home. (2014)

A group of workers being held in a private jail on Ambon Island, Indonesia. Fearing that this photo could be his last, one worker said, “Take my picture and tell my family, I am here and I am still alive.” These workers have since been rescued and retuned home, but their government only identified two of them as victims of human trafficking. (2014)

On Ambon Island, Indonesia, Samak Tubtanee, head of the Human Trafficking Office at the LPN, works to return forced laborers to their homes. (2014)

The graves of unknown Thai fishermen on Ambon Island, Indonesia. (2014)

A group of migrant workers at an immigration detention facility on Ambon Island, Indonesia. (2014)

The overgrown graves of fishermen from Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar cover the forest floor of Benjina Island, Indonesia. (2014)

LPN Program Manager Patima Tangprachakoon, alongside Laotian officials, meets with the family of a missing Laotian fisherman at the Laotian embassy in Thailand. The fisherman was eventually returned home safely. (2014)

 

U.S. Closing a Loophole on Products Tied to Slaves

February 15, 2016 — WASHINGTON — President Obama will sign legislation this week that effectively bans American imports of fish caught by forced labor in Southeast Asia, part of a flurry of recent actions by the White House, federal agencies, international trade unions and foreign governments to address lawlessness at sea and to better protect offshore workers and the marine environment.

Last week, the president signed the Port State Measures Agreement, which empowers officials to prohibit foreign vessels suspected of illegal fishing from receiving port services and access. The United States became the 20th country to ratify the pact.

“Step by step, I do really think we’re making progress, and there is a growing awareness of how much we need to get more control over the world’s oceans and the range of crime that happens out there,” Secretary of State John Kerry said in an interview on Monday. He added that he hoped to build on the momentum in the fall during a global meeting, called Our Oceans, that he will host in Washington.

The amendment that the president has said he will sign this week would close a loophole in the Tariff Act of 1930, which bars products made by convict, forced or indentured labor. For 85 years, the law has exempted goods derived from slavery if American domestic production could not meet demand.

In July, The New York Times published an article about forced labor on Thai boats, many of which catch the fish destined for pet food. It chronicled the lives of several dozen indentured Cambodian migrants, most of them boys, working on the ships, all of whom are now free. Among them was a man named Lang Long, who was shackled by the neck during his three years of captivity at sea.

“I think most Americans were horrified to learn that the fish in the pet food they give to their cats and dogs was being caught by children forced to work on ships against their will,” said Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, who, along with Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, sponsored the amendment, which has long been a goal of human rights advocates. The amendment focused on all types of forced and child labor, not just that used to produce seafood, and was passed by the Senate on Thursday with bipartisan support.

About 90 percent of seafood for human and pet consumption in the United States is imported, and the oceanic administration’s proposed rules are meant to protect threatened fish species and crack down on seafood entering American ports that has been caught illegally or is fraudulently labeled. The new rules would impose chain-of-custody reporting requirements for 13 species of at-risk fish, including cod, snapper, mahi mahi and several types of tuna.

The list includes types of fish that represent about 40 percent of the seafood that enters the United States, when measured by value. A spokesman for the oceanic agency said it hoped to include all imported seafood species, though no timetable has been set.

Read the full story at The New York Times