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.
Hardships await fishermen lured to Indonesia
April 21, 2016 — “I would never recommend anyone to work at sea,” says a fisherman from Myanmar who lost four fingers in an accident while on a fishing trawler.
Despite a difficult life as a fisherman, Tunlin knew he had to be patient if he wanted to survive. “I couldn’t give up my life at sea,” said the 34-year-old who returned from Ambon Island in Indonesia last year.
Tunlin is among some 2,900 fishermen who have been rescued and repatriated by the Labour Rights Promotion Network Foundation (LPN). The operation, started in 2014, continues to help both Thais and migrants, mostly from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, stranded in Indonesia.
Recalling his life before Indonesia, Tunlin said he had worked at a shrimp-peeling shed from the age of 16 in Samut Sakhon province, home to a large Myanmar migrant community. But the meagre earnings –100 baht per day — hardly sufficed.
New ways to fight human-rights abuses in the global seafood industry
April 14, 2016 — When Bayani secured an overseas job in the fishing industry from a broker in his home country of the Philippines, it was about finding work that he was skilled at and enjoyed and that could support his family. He didn’t expect to be forced to fish illegally, to be imprisoned on a fishing boat, or to have his passport and other documents withheld by his employer. Even so, had his family back home been receiving his salary, as he thought was happening, he said he might have kept quiet. But when Bayani learned a third-party was skimming his pay for an alleged debt owed by his employer, he decided to break his silence regardless of the consequences.
Bayani’s ordeal lasted for months during which he feared for his own wellbeing and that of his family. But because he had access to a mobile phone and a former employer who had leverage with his current employer, he eventually escaped his ordeal. Many other fishers in the global fishing industry aren’t so lucky. Bayani was not kidnapped and enslaved. He did not witness murder, child labor, or sexual abuse — all well documented occurrences in seafood supply chains.
Human-rights abuses in the seafood industry have grabbed headlines, causing governments, NGOs, businesses, and individual consumers to consider a more holistic view of sustainability — one that incorporates social as well as environmental responsibility. Recently, new approaches to improving the industry’s human-rights record have emerged. These often involve adding a social dimension to sustainable-seafood certification schemes or improving oversight via technological fixes. However, experts have yet to agree on which approaches are likely to work or which to embrace, given how bad the situation is.
US: Forced labor continues on Thai fishing vessels
April 14, 2016 — WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department said Wednesday that forced labor on Thai fishing vessels has continued in the past year despite legal reforms and arrests following an Associated Press investigation into the country’s seafood industry.
The department made the assessment in its annual global review of human rights practices, released in Washington by Secretary of State John Kerry. The report covers the 2015 calendar year.
The report finds that the Thai government has reaffirmed its “zero tolerance” policy for human trafficking and updated many laws that enhance regulatory powers and increase punishment for violations. An amended anti-trafficking law provides protection to whistleblowers and gives authorities the power to halt operations temporarily or suspend licenses of businesses and vehicles involved in human trafficking.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at The New Jersey Herald
Maine Marine Patrol Arrest Gardiner Man for Illegal Possession of Elvers
April 7, 2016 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:
The Maine Marine Patrol arrested Dana Wayne-Holmes, 61 of Gardiner on Saturday April 2 for illegal possession of elvers. Illegal possession of elvers is a criminal offense and is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2000 fine.
Holmes was arrested in Waldoboro after an investigation by the Marine Patrol revealed that he was attempting to purchase and sell elvers without a license. Holmes held an elver dealer license in 2015, however he does not hold a current dealers license.
Also charged in the investigation was licensed harvester Irving Banks, 47 of Jefferson. Banks was charged with exceeding his individual elver quota, also a Class D crime punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2000 fine.
In addition to fines and jail time, Banks faces possible one-year administrative suspension of his current license while Holmes faces possible one-year suspension of his right to obtain a dealer license in the future.
“It is a privilege to have an elver license in Maine,” said Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner. “This is one of the most lucrative fisheries we have, and one that has required a great deal of work by the Maine DMR and law abiding members of industry to sustain and manage. I will use the full extent of my authority to investigate and bring to justice anyone who violates laws that help us protect this valuable fishery.”
The Marine Patrol investigation involved eight Marine Patrol Officers including Lieutenant Jay Carroll, Sergeant Russell Wright, Sergeant Rob Beal, Sergeant Matt Talbot, Specialist Matt Sinclair, Officer Brian Brodie, Officer Jon Luellen, and Officer Chris Hilton. The Marine Patrol seized thirteen and half pounds of elvers from Holmes worth an estimated value of more than $18,000 based on per pound value at the time of the violation.
Dana Wayne-Holmes (Two Bridges Regional Jail)
FLORIDA: Men sentenced for poaching spiny lobsters in Miami-Dade waters
April 5, 2016 — MIAMI — Two South Florida men have been sentenced for illegally poaching spiny lobsters in Miami-Dade County.
On Tuesday, 54-year-old Donny Caridad Gonzalez and 77-year-old Nemesio Garcia Gonzalez appeared in court to be sentenced for the crime that occurred on May 9, 2015.
According to officials, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation officers observed a suspicious lobster shell inside a crab trap, even though the boat owner claimed no lobsters were on the boat. As officials investigated the boat, an officer found a total of 87 wrung lobster tails, 66 of which were undersized.
The lobsters were illegally collected outside of regular lobster season, which is Aug. 6 through March 31.
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
NOAA accepting final comments on new illegal seafood rules
April 5, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Federal fishing regulators who are hoping to crack down on illegal fishing imports are closing the public comment period on proposed new rules.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has supported changes that would create a new system to collect data about commercial fishing catch. The new rules would also track trips ashore and the chain of custody of fish and fish products imported into the U.S.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald
Pacific News Minute: Report Puts Cost of Illegal Fishing in the Pacific Lower than Believed
HAWAII (March 17, 2016) — The cost of illegal fishing in the western pacific may be much lower than believed. Previous estimates ranged up to $2.4-billion dollars a year. But this week, an independent, European funded study puts that figure at about a billion dollars a year, most of that in tuna. And, as we hear from Neal Conan in the Pacific News minute, the study also challenges beliefs, as to who’s responsible.
“We imagine vast fleets of pirate boats,” said James Movick, director General of the Forum Fisheries Agency. “The evidence doesn’t support that.”
The evidence was gathered over two years by an Australian company -MRAG Asia Pacific which concluded that the biggest culprits are licensed boats that underreport their catch. It put losses to pirates at just 4% of the total.
Former Canadian Mountie accused of smuggling narwhal tusks awaits trial in Maine
March 17, 2016 — A retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer is in U.S. custody awaiting trial on charges stemming from the smuggling of narwhal tusks.
Gregory Logan, 58, of St. John, New Brunswick, waived the right to a detention hearing Wednesday in Bangor after being extradited to face charges of money laundering after pleading guilty in Canada to smuggling narwhal tusks, prosecutors said.
U.S. prosecutors say Logan smuggled 250 tusks worth $2 million across the border into Maine in hidden compartments in his vehicle.
Narwhals are medium-sized whales known for spiral tusks that can grow longer than 8 feet. They are protected by the U.S. and Canada. Their tusks, like elephant tusks, are valued for their use in carvings and jewelry-making.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Portland Press Herald
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