Tag Archives: bykill

If only it was a happy Labor Day for all

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herring-07

Per Fish Feel:

http://www.FishFeel.orghttps://www.facebook.com/FishFeel.org

On this Labor Day, give a thought to the human slavery which is rampant in the fishing industry (not solely in Thailand). Please don’t support it or the immense animal suffering inherent with fishing.
“There is no official record of how many men are currently entrapped aboard fishing boats, but the Thai government estimates that up to 300,000 people work within its fishing industry, 90% of whom are migrants vulnerable to being tricked, trafficked and sold to the sea. So that probably means most are being held against their will.”

http://www.worldfishing.net/news101/Comment/analysis/slavery-in-fishing

Slavery in fishing

Aug 2014 Thailand is considered a major source and transit area for slavery. Credit: http://www.rubins.org/GFDL The Thailand prawn farming industry has recently received much negative publicity due to its alleged involvement in fishing slavery, reports Bryan Gibson. A six-month investigation by The Guardian newspaper has established that large numbers of men and young boys are being bought and sold like animals and held against their will on the decks of unseaworthy and usually unregistered trash fish trawlers, which specialise in catching small and juvenile fish species for conversion into processed fish meal for Thai prawn farms. Due to their low (or zero) labour cost, this force of entirely unwilling conscripts has become integral to the commercial production of farmed prawns sold in leading supermarkets around the world, including top global retailers such as Tesco, Walmart, Carrefour, Costco, Aldi, Morrisons, the Co-Operative and Iceland. And it might be considered, that with such an array of powerful buyers capable of erring on the side of right, slavery onboard fishing vessels, or forced labour connected anywhere else within a commercial food-chain, ought to have proven an easy problem to fix. One of the largest producers of prawns is Charoen Pokphand, which sells frozen and cooked prawns in the manufacture of ready meals such as prawn curries and stir fry. CP Foods told WF&A that it categorically condemns any form of forced labour and, following the allegations made in The Guardian report, is committed to ensuring that it plays no part in the company’s supply chain. The company immediately initiated a comprehensive investigation into every step of the supply chain, which is ongoing at this time.Pending the outcome of these investigations, CP Foods has suspended purchasing product for its shrimp feed business from all suppliers except those offering internationally certified, 100% by-product based fishmeal, for which they are able to verify the supply chain of all ingredients. Up to 300,000 fishing slaves are forced to work and live permanently aboard Thai ‘trash fish’ trawlers for years at a time under the threat of extreme violence and often murder. Thai ambassador to the US, Vijavat Isarabhakdi told The Guardian, “Thailand is committed to combatting human trafficking. We know a lot more needs to be done but we have also made significant progress to address the problem.” Although the Thai government has told The Guardian that “combating human trafficking is a national priority”, the newspaper’s undercover investigation unearthed a lawless and unregulated industry run by criminals; assisted in no small measure by the Thai maffia as well as government officials and sustained by the brokers who supply cheap migrant labour to boat owners. “The Thai authorities could get rid of the brokers and arrange legitimate employment,” said one high-ranking Thai official tasked with investigating human trafficking cases on condition of anonymity. “As long as boat owners still depend on brokers, and not the government to supply workers, then the problem will never go away.” Release for the enslaved only arrives when the skipper decides that the $450 he paid to the broker has been fully earned or paid-off by relatives and friends. DowngradeAfter being warned for four consecutive years about not doing enough to tackle slavery, the US Department of State has downgraded Thailand to Tier 3 in its 2014 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report. The downgrade means Thailand could potentially face sanctions, which might include the withdrawal of US non-humanitarian and non-trade-related assistance. The Guardian conducted interviews with fishermen, boat captains, boat managers, factory owners and Thai officials from fishing ports. Thailand enjoys prime position as the world’s largest prawn exporter within a seafood-export industry estimated to be worth $7.3bn. Via multinational companies such as CP Foods, Thailand exports 500,000 tonnes of prawns annually, nearly 10% of which is farmed by CP Foods. Although slavery is illegal in every country in the world, it is estimated that 21 million men, women and children are enslaved globally, according to the International Labour Organisation. Human rights activists believe that Thailand’s seafood-export industry would collapse without slavery. They say there is little incentive for the Thai government to take a positive stance and have called for consumers and international retailers to demand action. Whenever a population becomes isolated and excluded from the political, commercial or sociological mainstream, it runs the risk of unreasonable and illegal exploitation. Thailand is considered a major source and transit area for slavery, and nearly half a million people are believed to be enslaved within Thailand’s borders. There is no official record of how many men are currently entrapped aboard fishing boats, but the Thai government estimates that up to 300,000 people work within its fishing industry, 90% of whom are migrants vulnerable to being tricked, trafficked and sold to the sea. So that probably means most are being held against their will. Aidan McQuade of Anti Slavery International states, “There are over 5.5 million children in forced labour throughout the world, and if you buy prawns from Thailand, inevitably, you are buying the product of slave labour.” And for any commercial fisherman with a vestige of caring for his fellow mankind and is searching for a new and legitimate catch source, then taking-up the legal, moral and sustainable catching of Atlantic prawns and langoustines anywhere in the upper northern hemisphere, this might be a very good place for him to start. – See more at: http://www.worldfishing.net/news101/Comment/analysis/slavery-in-fishing#sthash.9f9h4MYl.dpuf
 

Vaquita Porpoise Faces Imminent Extinction—Can It Be Saved?

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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140813-vaquita-gulf-california-mexico-totoaba-gillnetting-china-baiji/

by Virginia Morell

for National Geographic

Published August 13, 2014

The vaquita, a small porpoise found only in the Gulf of California, is rapidly going extinct, an international team of scientists reported earlier this month.

The researchers say that the marine mammals—whose name means “little cow” in Spanish—are accidentally drowning in the gill nets local fishers deploy for fish and shrimp. A mere 97 vaquitas remain.

Vaquitas are shy creatures, and rarely seen, except when they’re pulled to the surface—dead—in nets. They’ve been known to science only since 1958, when three skulls were found on a beach. At the time, it was thought that they numbered in the low thousands. Scientists and fishers alike say the animals, with their pretty facial markings (“they look like they’re wearing lipstick and mascara,” one scientist said) and sleek bodies, are endearing.

There’s danger now that the porpoises will become the second cetacean (the first was the baiji, or Chinese river dolphin) to succumb to human pressures, most likely disappearing forever by 2018.

“It’s a complete disappointment for everybody, because we’ve all been working hard to turn this around, and the [Mexican] government has addressed this from the highest level possible,” said Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, a cetacean conservation specialist at Mexico’s Commission of Natural Protected Areas and a member of the team.

Indeed, the Mexican government established a presidential commission on vaquita conservation in 2012, when scientists estimated the porpoise’s population at 200.

Map of Gulf of California showing the range of the vaquita porpoise, along with the vaquita reserve, nearby biosphere reserve, and proposed gill-net exclusion zone.

MAGGIE SMITH, NG STAFF. SOURCES: International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita; IUCN; UNEP-WCMC

Failing Measures

To stem the vaquitas’ decline, in 2005 Mexico created a refuge for them, banned all commercial fishing in the refuge’s waters, beefed up enforcement, and invested more than $30 million (U.S.) to compensate fishers and encourage them to switch to other fishing methods.

It also established the international scientific team to monitor the porpoise’s population, reproductive rates, and habitat. Its members hail from such august conservation bodies as the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the International Whaling Commission, the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, and Norway’s Institute of Marine Research.

All were optimistic then. “We thought we were going to see the vaquitas’ numbers increasing by 4 percent a year,” said Barbara Taylor, a marine biologist with the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in San Diego, California, and a member of the team. “Instead, they’ve had a catastrophic decline of 18.5 percent per year.”

Chinese Demand—But Not for Vaquitas

That decline, Rojas-Bracho said, is “all due to illegal fishing that is out of control.”

In the past three years, illegal gillnetting for the totoaba, a critically endangered fish that can grow to more than six feet long (1.8 meters) and 300 pounds (136 kilograms), has surged. Unfortunately, the porpoise and the similarly sized totoaba live in the same parts of the gulf.

The totoaba’s swim bladder, highly prized as a traditional health food and medicine in China, can fetch thousands of dollars. Few fishers can resist the temptation.

“It’s like trying to control traffic while someone’s throwing money from the Empire State Building,” said Rojas-Bracho, who learned of the extent of this illegal take from several fishers who are also on the presidential commission.

The team estimates that about 435 miles (700 kilometers) of legal nets are in the water every day during the fishing season, from mid-September to mid-June. “And that’s not counting the illegal nets for the totoaba,” Taylor says.

Last-Ditch Solution

Because of the vaquita’s timid nature (a sighting at 300 feet [90 meters] is considered close), scientists can’t make visual counts of the animals. They rely instead on an array of special acoustic devices, deployed every year before the fishing season begins (they too are easily tangled in the nets), to record the sounds of the animals as they forage in the murky waters they favor. From these sounds, the researchers are able to estimate the vaquitas’ numbers.

Because the animal’s population is so low, the team says there is only one solution: Ban all gillnetting in the gulf’s upper regions, including the waters surrounding the vaquitas’ refuge. The ban must be strictly applied, even to the legal shrimp and fin fish fishery, and enforced with more police patrols on sea and land.

“It’s a hard choice,” Taylor acknowledges. Such a ban will hurt all the fishers, including those who aren’t engaged in the illegal fishery. But, she said, if Mexico doesn’t do that, it “will lose the vaquita.”

Rojas-Bracho said that Mexico, China, and the United States governments also need to work together to control—if not end—the trade in totoaba swim bladders. The dried bladders are often smuggled across the U.S. border before ending up in the Chinese marketplace.

There is a modicum of hope. Even at only 97 animals (25 of them believed to be females of reproductive age), the species can still be saved, Taylor believes. “Most marine mammals, including other cetaceans, that have been taken down through hunting have come back, so it’s not too late. But if nothing is done, they can also go extinct rapidly, as happened with the baiji. They can be gone before you know it.”

The commission will meet again at the end of August to discuss what to do next to save the vaquita.

Virginia Morell is the author of four acclaimed books, including Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures.

Compassion For All, Not Just the Endangered

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On Friday I drove out to spend a peaceful, sunny afternoon at an ocean beach, but instead of finding serenity, I came across an emaciated female California sea lion. I learned from locals passing by that she had been seen there for the past 5 days!!  She was obviously sick or injured and had been starving for a long time. I couldn’t see any bullet holes, but there were over two dozen commercial fishing boats (trawlers) visible just offshore. There has been a rash of 20+ dead sea lions with gunshot wounds washing ashore this spring, and no one has any doubts that they’re being shot by the fishermen who view them as competition, the same way elk hunters in the Rockies see wolves. 

I called a nearby Aquarium who has been performing necropsies on the dead sea lions in the area, but they said they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do anything about her. Everyone I spoke with to try to get some help for her said they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) get involved because they feared the National Marine Fisheries Service would “bankrupt” them with fines (no great threat to me as I’m pretty much broke anyway). The so-called Marine Mammal “Protection” Act makes no allowances for protecting injured sea lions–especially not a member of a species, such as the California sea lion, which isn’t currently endangered. 

When I told the people at the Aquarium that it might be a Northern sea lion (an animal on the list of endangered species, thanks to historic sealing and the ongoing over-fishing of their food supply), they showed a bit more interest, but still not enough to come out and do anything to ease her suffering. There was a strong undercurrent that no one would do anything to help a wounded animal which “competes” with fishermen for salmon and other commercially valuable fish. They told me there is a “hands off” approach regarding sea lions (no doubt because of what they eat). This is ironic since their policy of branding them with a hot iron, fitting them with cumbersome radio tracking devises and killing them if they are caught eating salmon at the dam upstream on the Columbia River is anything but “hands off.” 

It was a prime example of how the powers that be don’t allow any compassion for an individual animal whose species is not currently on the brink of extinction. Fisheries agency representatives have the same kind of detached attitude as land-based wildlife “managers,” showing no concern for individuals who may be suffering, only for animal populations as a whole. 

As you can see in the photos, the sea lion is starving. Judging by how little she was able to move around, she is surely unable to feed herself. I spent the afternoon shielding her from getting run over by the many rigs driving up and down the beach, and asking people not to stop and gawk (she would lift her head up whenever anyone pulled alongside her). I left for a while, and when I returned she appeared to have passed on. So I went home, but when I called on Sunday to someone who lives there to find out what happened to the body, he said she is STILL ALIVE! He nonchalantly echoed the attitude of the locals and the authorities alike, “She’ll either pull out of it, or she won’t.” 

Why isn’t there something we can do for her? There are plenty of veterinary and medical facilities nearby, but no one can legally help ease or end her suffering. The authorities say they don’t know who is shooting sea lions out at sea (and they’re not doing anything to try to find out), but they’d love to bust anyone they thought was “interfering” with “nature taking its course,” even if it’s for humane reasons. 

Earlier in the week I discovered a dead juvenile porpoise that had net marks above his tail. It most likely drowned in a fish net and was pitched overboard as bykill. These are just two of the many examples of the hidden cost of that fresh-caught salmon or fish filet in shrink wrap at your local market.