Introduction

'It's no fish ye're buyin' – it's men's lives.'

Sir Walter Scott, The Antiquary, 11.1 (1816)

What Walter Scott said in 1816 still rings true two centuries later. The main purpose of this book is to raise concerns about the deaths, dangers and deplorable conditions experienced by fishers who earn a living from the sea, and also about the communities that depend on them. This chapter provides a perspective on the book as a whole and its thematic sections.

There are 16.5 million fishers engaged globally, hunting for and landing some 90 million tonnes of fish each year. They comprise a vast diversity of national, ethnic and cultural participants in a fleet of over 4 million different types of craft with equally diverse gears. The largest group are the 15 million small-scale fishers (SSF). They work out of thousands of coastal communities on a day-to-day basis on boats less than 10 m in length. These are usually family owned and are labour-intensive in their operations, supplying food and incomes to communities. The next major national groups of fishers are based at urban ports manning more mechanised commercial vessels of 15-40 m. These employ local wage labour, and also these days migrant workers, and fish the wider national sea areas for national and regional markets. The third major group comprises fishers employed by large companies and consortia on distant-water vessels fishing internationally. The large crews are multinational and the ships are commercial-industrial in type, over 100 m in length, and often have processing facilities on board. These various categories of labour and types of vessel are discussed under specific topics in the book.

The 90 million or so fish landed each year by these seagoing vessels can be divided very broadly into two classes. The pelagic species, both small and large, are near-surface swimmers, moving in large shoals in response to environmental conditions as described in Chapter 2. The other category covers demersals. These are more diverse in type, and are found in deep-water locations and near the seabed. The varied species within and between the pelagic and demersal categories require different gears for capture.

In their work all fishers have to find, catch, preserve and deliver fish to beach landings, ports and processing plants. They occupy the first stage in a supply chain that culminates for many in wholesale markets and at the counters of retailers. They do so often at the cost of injuries and ill-health, as well as deaths in this, the most dangerous of all industrial occupations, which is prone in some sectors to violence and forced labour at sea.

The wild fish in the sea are increasingly in high demand and much valued in developed societies for both their culinary potential and their health-giving properties. They are a source of protein and omega-3 fatty acids. However, it is unlikely that many of the consumers of fish in the developed world know where the fish they eat has been caught, by whom, and in what circumstances. Why should they? As with an increasing number of the urbanised peoples of the newly industrialised countries of Asia, the expectation remains that both staples and exotic foodstuffs will simply arrive in local shops and restaurants. There is also an increasing demand for fish in the poorer coastal areas of developing countries, but here eating fish is seen as a means of survival in a world experiencing a rapid growth in population. Much of the fish entering the international trade has origins in the sea areas of these developing states.

In contrast to the continuously increasing demand for wild sea fish, production has, as noted in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, ' levelled out at around 90 million tons per annum, with little prospect of a higher yield'. Some stocks have collapsed, and others might follow. This is primarily because of overfishing by overcapacity fleets, made worse by illegal fishing, although environmental deterioration, including pollution together with acidification of estuaries and oceans, is also taking a toll. In some regions, such as the temperate North Atlantic and its adjacent seas, there are also already measurable effects on the behaviour and geographical distribution of fish stocks associated with sea temperature rise brought about by climate change, while the adverse effects of climate on land crops, together with population increase, may create further upward demand for marine resources.

Fishers and Plunderers

The increasing scarcity of fish is reflected in the rise in prices, with public awareness of the deterioration in fish stocks being further enhanced by media news of high-level international meetings to discuss ways of tackling the problems. There have been many such assemblies in the past half-century, at both national and international levels, giving rise to a plethora of United Nations (UN) Conventions, Recommendations and Codes of Practice. However, these have had a minimal effect in slowing environmental degradation and maintaining sustainable stocks of many fish species.

The main cause of depletion of stocks has been reckless competition in the race for fish. Although there is much responsible fishing by well-established vessel owners, a considerable number of vessels have been widely deployed in the world's oceans by companies financed by venture capital, which operate at international level with little regard for regulation of quantities or species of fish being caught. Less valuable fish have been discarded dead, and fish have effectively been stolen from coastal seas which are under the jurisdiction of a significant number of developing states. Many poorer coastal states have been unable to curtail such fishing, while UN agencies have lacked the authority to take direct action against these and other violations that destroy fish stocks.

Central to this crisis are the fishers at sea and their communities ashore. In several ways they too have been victims of overexploitation. The virtually uncontrolled pursuit of scarce fish has meant that vessels have been spending longer at sea for each unit of catch. The industry has responded to this issue with increased effort underpinned by advanced technology. Fuel, insurance and vessel maintenance costs, together with capital costs, have continued to increase regardless of the level of catches. The only significant operating cost that remains under the control of the fishing companies is labour. In order to retain and increase profits, labour costs have thus been driven to the lowest possible levels. The methods of doing this have included reduced crewing, long hours, minimal victualling, and most of all forcing into service untrained young men and boys from among the poorest people in poor countries. Among these migrant fishers there are higher risks, violence, injuries and deaths. While the statistical evidence for these conditions is weak, the empirical evidence as revealed in this book is extensive enough to confirm widespread systemic abuse, even of children.

The race to the bottom in labour costs in an industry with such depleted resources is a graphic example of the decline in wildlife which often necessitates the increased use of cheap labour to maintain yields. Harvesters of numerous species of wildlife resort to acquiring trafficked adults and children to capture ever scarcer resources, as a way of minimising production costs. This is seen in extreme form in contemporary sea fishing in several areas of the globe. There are, of course, international conventions regarding the life and work of fishers as well as the sustainability of fish stocks. But Daren Coulston, a New Zealand activist in support of fishers who was a former skipper fishing in the Pacific Ocean makes the point:

The well-being of fisher folk is linked to the health of fisheries that they operate in. Consider, if a person/company/corporation is prepared to enslave another to increase profit from fishing, will they care about the rules, sustainability or the environment? Evidence from NZ experience says No. It is clear to me that a reduction in forced labour on fishing vessels will have a direct positive effect on sustainability, transparency and enforcement. This has global implications.

Coulston is clearly saying that reducing the cost of labour in order to fish longer, harder and further in overfished seas while avoiding the tenets of sustainability is absolutely the wrong way to manage a declining stock, and further, that it will lead to disasters for both fishers and coastal communities. There are of course regional variations both in these circumstances and in fishers' reactions to abuse and slavery, as is underlined in several parts of this book.

In general, working conditions are always hard and dangerous at sea. Crews following highly migratory big pelagic tunas in distant waters often work in conditions that amount to slavery. However, for large modern pelagic vessels catching herring and mackerel in northern European waters there are good working conditions and no problems in obtaining local labour. It is a different matter on board demersal fishing boats catching cod, haddock and hake, for example. Here the fishers have little respite from shooting nets, hauling, unloading, gutting, cleaning, packing and icing fish throughout both day and night in all weathers. As a result there can be local labour shortages, leading to demand for migrant workers to complete crews. Skippers, who usually belong to the countries in which vessels are registered, in turn often spend 20 hours or so in a single stretch in the wheelhouse, and are expected to find the fish, as well as keep the boat and crew safe in all weathers. Loss of boats because of bad weather is still dominant in fishing casualty statistics. A farmer can lose a crop through bad weather, but a fisher can lose everything including their life. The health and safety specialist Peter Hurst writes, 'One in twenty fishers from the UK risks being killed at work.' The situation is often much worse elsewhere, and taken together with other issues, it does not encourage people to join the fishing industry when there are alternative occupations open to them.

Although the focus in this book is on fishers working at sea, we also consider the differences in fishing communities generated by their other activities. Some families have access to land as well as marine resources, as on the high islands of the Pacific, while on coral atolls and in fishing communities on the margins of larger land areas there are often few, if any, alternatives to fishing. Such communities are typically exposed to variable weather conditions, educationally deprived and politically weak. In many places they have been bypassed by governments which favour renting out their exclusive economic zone (EEZ) entitlements to fish to foreign vessels. People in some of these depressed small-scale fishing communities receive remittances from relatives who have found employment overseas on foreign fishing vessels, but these fishers are often exploited at sea and may return without remuneration. Such small-scale communities are the most numerous of those involved in fishing, as well as being among the poorest in the world. It is from these coastal communities that syndicates can attract or coerce fishers into drug running and piracy.

Farming fish as a substitute for wild fish is often seen as the solution to the depletion of wild fish stocks and the many human problems engendered by it. However, farmed fish also have to be fed, normally using vast quantities of small and less commercially valuable wild fish. Although it can produce short-term profits, there is little to be gained and much to be lost in fish farming, especially since both disease and the use of antibiotics present substantial hazards in raising farmed fish. Despite the large scale of finfish and shellfish produced by aquaculture, it presents limited opportunities for further increase in the supply of fish for human consumption, as much of the catch is already used for fish feed, although there is research in progress regarding alternative feedstocks, which could take the pressure off wild fish stocks.

To deal with these fundamental issues we have organised this book in two parts. Part I covers some basic characteristics of sea fishery which apply to virtually all modern-day fishers, such as the risks, operations and regulations that shape the highly competitive race for scarce fish. The regulations often stipulate that only set quotas of various species can be landed. However the gear is often not discriminating in the type and quantity of fish captured. The capture has to be followed by a sorting process, and the 'bycatch' (fish caught in excess of the quota, juvenile fish, unwanted species plus mammals) are 'discarded': that is, thrown back to the sea dead. This system also encourages illegal landings of out-of-quota fish.

Part II deals with the plight of fishers derived from this race to fish. It is manifest in people trafficking, abuses at sea, and arrests of vessels and crew in port, as well as in attempts to obviate these problems by direct actions and recourse to law.

Part I The Fishing Industry and the Race to Fish

Chapter 2 provides an outline of the natural processes that make up the food chain, which is exploited at various levels. This includes primary production, and the significance of temperature and ocean circulation in the distribution of fish. There are descriptions of the types of gear and vessels employed, and estimates made by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on the availability and vulnerability of fish stocks.

Chapter 3 considers the hazards of working at sea on fishing vessels. It covers weather, gear handling, types of vessel loss, and health and safety of fishers. Statistics are available only for total loss of vessels over 500 gross register tonnage (GRT). For the millions of small and medium-sized craft there are no official records. It is however apparent from all the national statistics that are available that in every case deaths of fishers far exceed those of all other occupations in the same country.

Since 1982, any coastal state has had the exclusive right to fish in EEZs up to 200 nautical miles (nm) from the coast, or up to boundaries with opposite and adjacent states. Chapter 4 shows how many developed states gained most from this division of the sea. It also discusses the problems of highly migratory stocks, and those beyond national jurisdictions, which affect fishing policies and employment.

The initial intention of the EEZ system was that nation states would distribute the agreed allowable catches by first allocating quotas to their own fishers, then allocating any surpluses to foreign states. However, the system has worked differently in practice. Chapter 5 discusses how more developed countries acquired rights to fish EEZs in most developing countries. As an example it discusses EU practices in West Africa, which have contributed to the poverty of African fishers.

Chapter 6 looks at other ways in which the fish stocks which should be controlled by developing countries are plundered by richer states. It shows how in most developing regions 20-30 per cent of the fish caught are illegally plundered by vast fleets from richer states. In addition the methods used by these large-scale fleets add to the destruction of the marine environment. The result is further impoverishment of small-scale fishing communities. In desperation some small-scale fishers have also resorted to using destructive methods to obtain fish which they need both for food and to sell to obtain income. There are cases of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing even in developed countries' waters by wealthy fishing companies.

Stolen fish have to be marketed. Chapter 7 discusses how this 'black fish' is 'laundered' in the supply chain. This involves a series of sophisticated methods at sea and in ports before the fish are sold in the markets of developed states as legally caught. In essence, we uncover criminal conspiracies in the supply chains of international fish trading and processing.

Part II The Plight of the Fishers

The division of the sea into areas controlled by different nation-states is not always respected. Fishers can accidentally cross the invisible boundaries when pursuing schools of fish, and some also cross them by intent in order to effectively steal stocks they are not authorised to fish. Those who are arrested are often sentenced to long periods of imprisonment, even when they are innocent of any intent to break the regulations. Chapter 8 focuses on disputed boundaries and claims, and instances when fishers are used as pawns in disputes between states. Fishing vessels have been fired on and sunk, and they are also held in port, acting as prisons for their crew, while the owners are traced, which can be very difficult.