house of summre

  Welcome back, everyone! The Price Is Right's Bob Barker is known for being a game show host and an animal activist who has donated a lot of money to help non-profit organizations like Sea Shepard- even having a vessel named after him.  Founder of Sea Shepard Paul Watson (grey hair)  BOB BARKER VESSEL  The Sea Shepard was founded by Paul Watson, also one of Greenpeace's founding members. The Sea Shepard movement has gained international notoriety, spreading over 20 countries that work together on direct-action campaigns (SeaShepard, 2022). The Sea Shepard works in trying to stop IUU fishing. I found an incredible story regarding human rights abuses regarding a notorious fishing vessel named Thunder. Video footage showed an unknown man being shot and killed onboard the Thunder- I will spare the footage because it is triggering.  Nonetheless, the Thunder was wanted for IUU fishing, and Sea Shepard found this elusive fishing vessel, and an epic long high sea chase...

(Urbina, 2015) Welcome back to all things involving the fishing industry and the many atrocities in the vast ocean. Imagine being out in the open water, where no laws apply, anything can happen, and no one is watching. Once leaving a country's shoreline on about 12 nautical miles out into the sea, one has entered international waters where it is extremely hard, if not impossible, to define what laws apply. The misery that is endured by fishermen is hard to fathom. With vessels out hundreds of miles from a shoreline, they are unregulated and out of sight. Due to the lack of visibility migrant workers are held captive, typically from developing countries, who have no idea how to get back to their families. Lax maritime labor laws and an incredible global demand for seafood have made a ripe environment for human rights abuse and illegal fishing tactics.  (Urbina, 2015) So how do these fishing vessels get away with it? Long-haul fishing, where fishing vessels stay out hundreds of miles...

Just curious has anyone heard about the 7 BILLION snow crabs that have disappeared from the waters in Alaska????  There is still an ongoing investigation that could be linked to the oceans' warming. Ultimately, this has halted the snow crab season, and for the first time ever, Alaska has canceled its snow crab season. This cancelation will result in millions lost in revenue from loss of product, of course, but also loss of employment with an unknown ripple-down effect (Maher, 2022).    Ok, Back to the regularly scheduled expose on the fishing industry and vessel identification.                                                                                            (Horn & Fiore, 2021) Illegal,...

(EJF, 2020)   So, perhaps you find yourself thinking after reading this blog, why can't these people who work in such a toxic fishing industry just leave? Why can't they just report to higher management?  Where is HR?  Listen up, folks, people are subjected to horrendous, grueling, dirty, and dangerous jobs for pennies on the dollar with little to no oversight or anyone to report abuse to. The fishing industry is no different. I have articulated how the ocean's vastness makes it hard for officials to regulate. Thus resulting in egregious human rights violations and a total lack of respect for fishing regulations. Thriving due to the lack of transparency and inadequate measure to inspect vessels. No stretch of the ocean is free from abuse. A really interesting loophole for committing human rights abuses and violations on fishing vessels are flags of no compliance. So imagine every fishing vessel has a home country, one they report back to. Every state has the right to regi...

  AP Photo/ Caleb Jones                                                                                      AP Photo/ Caleb Jones The ocean makes up two-thirds of the planet's surface . More than three billion people rely on the sea for their livelihoods  (OCED, 2022) , representing many opportunities and its fair share of challenges. The ocean means It truly is uncharted territory, the last frontier; the lawlessness at sea is truly staggering. Given the vastness of international waters, regulating what is happening on every vessel is hard. This video provided below does a great job explaining how international water laws work or don't work; I would argue the latter due to the lack of resources allocated to monitoring and com...