Fishers and Plunderers

The role of human rights in implementing socially responsible seafood

“…Indeed, in 2015, investigative reporters at The Guardian raised allegations of trafficking within elements of the Irish trawling industry [45], while in February 2018 the Seafood Slavery Risk Tool (http://www.seafoodslaveryrisk.org/) implicated certain UK scallop fishers as being complicit in human trafficking and bonded labour [46]. Human trafficking in New Zealand’s fishing industry was exposed by a number of researchers [5,47–49]. Vulnerable workers from countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines are coerced and trafficked by agents into New Zealand, where they are allegedly bonded into forced labour aboard a number of foreign chartered vessels.…”

“…Fatality rates in fisheries can range from 3.5 times (Canada) to 15 times (Republic of Korea) above the national average [50], and are likely to be much higher in developing countries where data are less available. While fatalities at sea are not always the result of violations of human rights or applicable maritime law, the safety of fisheries workers is nevertheless more frequently compromised in situations where human and labour rights are not respected [5]. For example, migrant workers working on Irish trawlers allegedly earn less than minimum wage, work for very long hours and experience unacceptable levels of workplace accidents [51].…”

“…While slavery and slavery-like practices represent one especially egregious example of the violation of people’s civil and political (CP) rights during the production of seafood, they are but one of a pervasive set of social injustices experienced by fisheries workers [5]. More latent and widespread violations include actions that perpetuate discrimination, deny fair access and sharing of benefits, and threaten food and livelihood security in fishing communities [6].…”

The Routledge Handbook of Ocean Space

“…In contemporary times, the sea remains a space of disobedience, activism and direct action. Couper et al (2015) note the prevalence of mutinies and exit practices in modern fisheries where fishers respond to 'intolerable conditions'. They identify the Indonesian island of Tual as being a space where such exits are particularly frequent, noting how it has held between '700-800 Burmese (at any given time) who have fled from fishing boats'.…”

Editorial: Illegal Fishing as a Trans-National Crime

“…Root causes of illegal fishing including cost/benefit analysis by offenders (Becker, 1968), but also moral, societal, economic, and cultural factors affecting behaviors-including feelings of entitlement or ownership over the resource, protest against existing rules (Sutinen and Kuperan, 1999), resistance to impoverishing exclusionary conservation (Sutinen and Kuperan, 1999;Sumaila et al, 2006;Belhabib, in review), coercive enrollment (Andrews-Chouicha and Gray, 2005), as well as the hold of organized crime and moral norms within fishing communities (Le Gallic and Cox, 2006;Österblom et al, 2011;Belhabib and Le Billon, 2018;Galaz et al, 2018), regardless of deterrence levels and sanction risks (Sutinen and Kuperan, 1999). Overcapacity, ineffective management and subsidies can exacerbate illicit fishing (Le Gallic and Cox, 2006), alongside poverty and economic desperation, especially in contexts of crisis (Couper et al, 2015).…”