Читать книгу Captain Paul Watson Interview - Paul Watson, Michele Sciurba - Страница 24

On top of that, this is an industry rampant with slave labor. A lot of people on these vessels are enslaved. It may not be slavery in the technical sense but it is slavery all the same. For instance, right now fishing vessels come into port in Honolulu, Hawaii, sailing under the American flag. The crew gets paid about $300 a month. They are not Americans and are not allowed ashore. They are forced to stay on board in a special compound when the boats dock on shore. Then they return to sea and back to port. Because they’re paid about $300 a month, they are not technically slaves but they are never allowed to leave the ship and perform slave labor, considering the profits of the American fishing companies they work for. And yet, we turn a blind eye to that. We are very good at seeing what we want to see and ignoring what we don’t want to see. That’s true with every conflict. Consider the Israeli-Palestine-conflict, we say: “We don’t want to hear about children being killed. Israel has the right to defend itself. Don’t confuse us with these stories about kids getting killed. It doesn’t fit with our national agenda.”

The fishing industry makes millions and millions in profits and at the same time, the crew members on these ships have to endure terrible working conditions. The main issue is permitting a ship to double-register. A German ship can be registered in Panama and fly under the Panamanian flag, allowing it to escape German legal jurisdiction and German labor law. It’s a well-known problem in the EU, and our impression is that nobody is doing anything to stop it.

Greenback turtle trapped in purse seine net during haul.

The case of the Canadian Merchant Marine and the Canadian Seafarer’s Union illustrates why it is so hard to change this practice. When sailors on board of the Canadian ships have demanded proper pay, the shipping industry’s response was: “We don’t need you, we will just sail under different flags.”

Here’s how ridiculous the situation has become. The ferry from Portland, Maine, to Nova Scotia crosses the U.S.-Canadian border. It’s owned by the Canadian government. Although the Canadian government owns the ferry, it sails under the flag of the Bahamas, because the vessel cannot pass Canadian shipping regulations. Here we have the case of a government ship that fails to meet its own regulations. This is the case nearly everywhere. In the United States the Jones Act requires ships transporting cargo between American ports to sail under the American flag. That’s why cruise ships out of Seattle going to Alaska have to stop in Vancouver or Victoria before going on to Alaska. It would be illegal to make that trip without sailing under the American flag. Only American flag ships can do that. And that’s probably the only country I know that has such strict measures, but it only applies to domestic shipping. It doesn’t affect international transportation.