Slave labor on fishing boats, particularity in Asia, has been a serious problem for many years. In 2011, we posted about reports that the crews of of chartered fishing vessels operating in New Zealand waters were being systematically abused and robbed of their pay. More recently, the AP investigated the abuse of seamen in Thai shrimping business. They found that Thai and Burmese fishermen were being held against their will and often beaten or killed on trawlers catching “trash fish” also know as bycatch, to supply Thai shrimp farms. The bycatch is also used to make pet food and food for livestock.

Now in the third of his series, Outlaw Ocean, Ian Urbina, of the New York Times, writes of ‘Sea Slaves’: the Human Misery that Feeds Pets and Livestock.  Well worth reading.  A short video companion to the article:

From ‘Sea Slaves’: the Human Misery that Feeds Pets and Livestock:

Shipping records, customs data and dozens of interviews with government and maritime officials point to a greater reliance on long-haul fishing, in which vessels stay at sea, sometimes for years, far from the reach of authorities. With rising fuel prices and fewer fish close to shore, fisheries experts predict that more boats will resort to venturing out farther, exacerbating the potential for mistreatment.

“Life at sea is cheap,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division. “And conditions out there keep getting worse.”

While forced labor exists throughout the world, nowhere is the problem more pronounced than here in the South China Sea, especially in the Thai fishing fleet, which faces an annual shortage of about 50,000 mariners, based on United Nations estimates. The shortfall is primarily filled by using migrants, mostly from Cambodia and Myanmar.