On Thursday, October 6, 2016 the Jarman Environmental Law Fellowship, the Food Law and Policy Society, and the Human Rights Club co-sponsored a panel on fishing regulations in the Pacific. This panel was organized as a result of a recent Associated Press report alleging abusive labor conditions affecting foreign workers on American fishing vessels in Hawaiʻi. The fishing industry continues to operate without oversight.
A federal loophole exempted commercial fishing boat owners from federal rules enforced almost everywhere else. This allows for undocumented fishing workers to be employed in U.S. fishing fleets, which allow them to be exempt from basic labor protections in catching swordfish and ahi tuna. These workers also do not have visas, which do not allow them to set foot on shore. The fleet of these ships dock at Piers 17 and 38 in Honolulu, and their catch ends up at restaurants and premium seafood counters across the country.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health lists commercial fishing as among the most dangerous jobs in the country. Many employees leave their home nations in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam) and the Pacific (Kiribati) to take these jobs, which can pay as little as 70 cents per hour. These workers live in squalor on some boats, being forced to use buckets instead of toilets, suffering sores from bed bugs, and sometimes lacking sufficient food and drinking water. Some workers suffer from medical problems including high blood pressure, skin infections, tuberculosis, and scurvy. There have also been alleged instances of human trafficking.
The workers have little legal recourse in these areas. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection require captains to hold the men’s passports, going against federal human trafficking rules. In addition, these workers are seeking fair wages and to be treated fairly. Some of the foreign workers earn less than $5,000 for a full year. The average pay for an American deckhand was $28,000. American crewmembers working in Alaska make up to $80,000 a year.
Terrina Wong, Deputy Director of Social Services at the Pacific Gateway Center, notes her personal experiences with trafficked fishing workers seeking social services. She provided a firsthand account about workers who are provided inadequate healthcare, including being subject to physical and mental abuse. Community workers and local non-profit agencies have known about these industries for years, but attempts to bring cases to law enforcement have been met with little success.
Clare Hanusz (ʻ99) (Of Counsel, Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert) previously worked with and represented trafficked farm workers from Thailand working for Aloun Farms. As an immigration attorney, Clare has sought to get asylum rights for trafficking victims. These workers face disparate treatment, including physical abuse, exploitation, and subjection to barbaric security measures. Clare notes similar types of practices in the fishing industry, with trafficked workers who have been vulnerable to physical abuse and exploitation. Clare advised the audience to think about the “Buy Local” movement. She deemed this as a “Die Locally” campaign, after seeing the faces of trafficked workers who have been killed from participating in these processes.
Stacey Gray (ʻ19) distinguished the three levels of fishing vessels: Alaska fleets, Hawaiʻi fleets, and fleets with international workers. Stacey worked on US flagged ships in both Alaska and Hawaiʻi, noting that the conditions in Hawaiʻi vessels were considerably worse than Alaska fleets. Stacey also notes a severe lack of healthcare with questionable living questions, posing moral questions about workers obligations to these fishing workers. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”), the main federal agency responsible for the enforcement of health and safety of laborers, has no power over observers.
Harmony Liff is a Marine Biologist for Techsea Internatioanl, Inc., collecting data from longline tuna and swordfish fishing vessels adhering to standards of the Pacific Islands Regional Observer Program. Harmony noted the distinction between Hawaiʻi and international fleets, noting that many choose the profession because of the lucrative wages that are provided by this profession.
The speakers noted that while the expansion of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument is seen as a victory for conservation, the industrial-scale fisheries are focused on present profits. These practices catch the targeted fish and other sea animals, including other fish, turtles, marine mammals, seabirds, and sharks, jeopardizing the sustainability of our fisheries and the livelihoods of small boat fisheries. Conservation areas give fish the chance to repopulate. These fish populations can spill over to adjacent waters, increasing the quantity of fish available to the Hawaiian Islands.
Some observers note that around 150 Hawaiʻi longline fishing vessels will be prohibited from fishing in the designated area, causing Hawaiʻi’s fisheries to lose 10% or more of its annual catch. Foreign fishing vessels are likely to fish in these protected waters, where there is insufficient enforcement on the waters to control them, and seafood wholesalers will have no choice but to purchase imported fish. In addition, most countries have far lower health and safety regulations than the United States, leading to Salmonella and E. coli outbreaks.
As a community, we must examine our fishing practices, so that they provide our fishing workers with adequate care and fair wages. Pono fishing practices make good business sense, create a sustainable marine environment, and allows for humane treatment of all workers.