
Ship of horrors: life and death on the lawless high seas - fermigier
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/12/ship-of-horrors-deep-sea-fishing-oyang-70-new-zealand
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lb1lf
The author of the story, Ian Urbina, has just published an eminently readable
book (Outlaw Ocean, from which this story is an edited excerpt) on the
vagaries of law on the high seas; embedding with fishermen, repossessors,
fishery authorities and environmentalists he paints a rather grim picture of
how you can get away with just about any kind of ruthlessness, cruelty or
pollution as long as you do so in international waters.

I picked it up at JFK the day before yesterday, planning on reading a chapter
before going to sleep on my flight to Heathrow. Next thing I knew, the flight
attendant asked me to prepare for landing.

~~~
coredog64
One of the stories I recall from my time at an NGO in this space is that a
tuna boat crew straight up murdered their fisheries observer and chucked his
body overboard. When the ship docked, the responsible crew scattered to the
wind.

There’s a huge tension in the observer’s position. They’re watching what
you’re doing and can see any legal violations. At the same time, they’re
dependent on the fishing vessel for food and shelter. High bandwidth
communication channels are expensive and hard to come by. And if the
captain/crew knows you’re putting their livelihoods at risk in real-time, they
might do something about it. So we had to balance observer safety with
whatever data we were asking them to collect.

~~~
ryacko
This is true for any situation when you’re the lone outgroup. Unless you have
a camera live streaming (which is expensive even in an urban area), you only
have the available evidence, which could be scarce or ambiguous.

The only deterrent is the chance someone might avenge you, which usually ends
up being a prosecutor interested in only padding their win rate.

People who survive poverty are more aware of this than others.

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TrackerFF
Up here in Norway they had discovered some absolutely horrid working
conditions on some of the trawlers that fish for snow and king crabs. They'd
import workers from eastern Europe and Asia (Indonesians etc.) - where the
workers would deal with up to 18-hours shifts, to the point that they'd fall
asleep on deck, while working.

When food ran out, they'd start eating bait. The pay was so low that they
sometimes couldn't afford going back home...$400-$500 monthly salary in
northern Europe.

[https://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/secret-slave-
contracts/7055...](https://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/secret-slave-
contracts/70555901)

~~~
tgsovlerkhgsel
Why eat the bait instead of the catch? Surely on a ship full of literal _tons_
of fish, the cost of feeding the crew some of it is completely negligible?

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macintux
Reminds me of an article discussed here, which I can’t find at the moment,
about the horrific conditions that cruise ship employees, often indentured
servants, endure.

When I was a kid, working on the open seas seemed so romantic, but I suppose
historically it’s mostly been a cruel environment populated with cruel people.

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mrnobody_67
I think NY Times had a similar story about fishing fleets in Thailand and
Indonesia... basically modern slavery. Seized passports. Multi-year contracts.
Brutal work hours, abuse, and horrendous living conditions.

Sounds like NZ acted aggressively in trying to do the right thing here, which
is terrific to hear.

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RcouF1uZ4gsC
>The last men off the drowning ship said that they saw Shin in the wheelhouse,
refusing to abandon his post or put on a life jacket. Hugging a pole and
clutching his clear bottle, he was muttering in Korean and crying.

I find this fascinating. You really couldn’t ask for something that would
align incentives more in keeping the ship afloat than the captain going down
with the ship. And yet, the captain blatantly ignored safety requirements and
caused his ship to sink.

I have more respect for this captain, who even though he placed his crew
members lives at risk, placed himself at more risk and went down with the
ship, than a lot of CEOs who do or tacitly encourage doing very shady (or
illegal) things and then escape accountability through golden parachutes.
Maybe we need more “captains going down with the ship” type of laws in the
business sector.

~~~
markbnj
As a former professional deckhand who has worked on small fishing craft, my
take on this would not be that he elected to go down with his ship. If that
has ever actually happened outside of myth and fable then it has at least been
very rare. My guess is that in his own way the captain was as desperate for
the job and as fearful for the consequences of the unfolding event as his
crew, and was simply paralyzed by despair. He may also have been impaired by
alcohol, dampening reason and enhancing panic. Many, perhaps most, commercial
sailors fear the water in a way that people who work ashore can't understand.
The image of the recreational sailor who is as at home in the water as on the
surface of it does not describe the average worker on a commercial vessel,
right up to the officers. They're not out there for fun, and they know that if
they are forced overboard far from land, survival suit or no, the chances of
death are quite high.

~~~
GhettoMaestro
That thought has always terrified me: survival mode in/on the water with an
inevitable death ahead.

It masks me wonder if there is a market for automatic sensing hydro-electronic
sensors integrated in sailors / fishermen's clothing. The idea is if the
sensor is in contact with some amount of water for 90+ seconds, start a count-
down to chirp an emergency radio beacon.If the user doesn't over-ride the
count-down, via a button somewhere in clothing, it starts sending a distress
beacon, allowing for rescue within hours most likely.

The reason for the automatic element is if someone were to be knocked
overboard and unconscious. A similar concept can be thought of regarding the
firefighters PASS device:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PASS_device](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PASS_device)

~~~
lb1lf
You basically reinvented the PLB (Personal Location Beacon), a GPS-equipped
radio transmitter slightly bigger than a pack of cigarettes which will let a
satellite network know your precise location minutes after falling in the
water.

The one I wear when at sea cost $400 or so plus a $50 annual fee.

~~~
GhettoMaestro
Thank you. So it is a case of people planning poorly. :(

~~~
lb1lf
Not necessarily; after all, such a beacon will only let the world know that
someone, somewhere is in the water; depending on where they fell in, rescue
personnel may need days to get to the site if it is sufficiently remote and
the weather is bad enough.

The main benefit of a PLB is to assist the vessel you fell from in finding you
- unless you had the good luck to fall overboard near a heliport in decent
weather or in a busy shipping lane, the PLB will (mostly) not be able to get a
rescue effort by any other party under way in time.

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throwaway87378
It is not surprising that these kinds of conditions exist on fishing vessels -
you start to treat your fellow human animals the same way you treat other
animals. "Fishing," which is really planetary-scale sea foraging, as Jeremy
Jackson points out, is incredibly cruel to everyone involved. If you do not
already shun seafood because of the massive amounts of mercury and other toxin
pollution, maybe consider the ethical problems, and start advocating for a
total ban on commercial fishing.

Watch this talk by Jeremy Jackson if you still think that seafood is somehow
"ok":
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zMN3dTvrwY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zMN3dTvrwY)

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mycall
"This is the best we can get." That says it all.

~~~
TrackerFF
I'm from a very rural (coastal) area, where every surrounding town and village
has been affected by loss of jobs, displacement of fishing industries, etc.

Fishing is, and has been for hundreds of years, the lifeblood of the area.

One thing I've noticed is that people are unfortunately vehemently anti-
regulations and anti-gov involvement. Any new company, no mater how shady, is
welcomed with open arms. As long as they bring jobs, all is good.

As it often happens, these companies skirt (or just completely ignore) labor
laws, and will work their employees to the bone, ignoring contracts, and what
not.

Not too long ago a company like that was taken down by workers that actually
sued, because it turned out that they'd been working double digit hours, 7
days a week, without pay, and in dangerous conditions.

The company simply shut down, knowing they wouldn't stand a chance to
compensate workers on owed salaries.

The locals were furious. Not at the company, but at the workers that sued -
because one less business meant less jobs. They'd rather have workers get
abused and cheated out of money, than no money.

And that is unfortunately the attitude in many such places - not only slave
workers from south-east Asia.

Desperation really plays a trick on people, and can make them susceptible to
exploitation.

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lolc
The title made me think of pirates. I was prepared to read how horrible
seafaring used to be. Turns out for a lot of people it still is.

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lbj
This really puts the whole Amazon discussion in perspective.

~~~
ben_w
The rainforest or the company? My housemate is Brazilian, and has a _lot_ to
to say about the former.

~~~
lbj
The company I mean, but I'd love to hear his thoughts on the former.

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hn_throwaway_99
I usually try to stay away from comments on the site implementation, but in
this case having the same full page video ad pop up every time you scroll a
page on mobile? Seriously, what are they thinking? I understand the importance
of ads to a site, but this made the article unreadable to me.

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commandlinefan
I got half way through before the ads crashed chrome.

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ohlookabird
No ads whatsoever with Chrome plus uMatrix.

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13of40
I'm using Edge with the built-in ad blocker and didn't get any ads.

