AN INVESTIGATION INTO FISHING SLAVES
BY KEITH INGRAM
The FCV Insung No 2 at sea, heading toward the Southern Ocean. Her sistership, the Insung No 1, was recently lost with the loss of five lives and 17 missing presumed dead
The complaints stated in this article focus on the Korean foreign charter vessels and do not reflect on the Japanese and Russian/Ukraine FCVs, as they have not been a part of our investigations.
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n the last issue of Professional Skipper we reported that history appeared to be repeating itself when several crewmen from the foreign charter fishing vessel FV Shin Ji jumped ship in Auckland.
This has been followed by a group of 32 Indonesian fishermen who quit their boat, the FV Oyang 75, in Lyttelton Harbour. They allegedly received inhumane treatment and are now faced with deportation.
The men left the ship, a Korean-licensed FCV chartered by the Christchurch company Southern Storm Fishing, claiming serious physical, sexual and psychological abuse from Korean officers and alleging the company had not paid some of them at all and others fully for their five months on board.
Southern Storm Fishing has publicly stated it has paid the
crew, done nothing wrong and the crew had no reason to leave the boat. The mounting evidence would suggest otherwise. The Oyang 75 was newer and purportedly in better condition than the previous Oyang 70, which sank off the coast of the South Island in August last year with the loss of six lives. The crew of the Oyang 75 were consistent in stating they had to work between 18 and 20 hours a day when fishing, and verbal
18 Professional Skipper September/October 2011
and physical abuse by the officers was standard practice to force them to work the long hours.
One of the crew is said to have been punched repeatedly in the head by the chief engineer so badly it has so affected his vision he has been to see an ophthalmologist.
Of particular concern is the reported mental abuse and draconian punishment routines carried out by the Korean masters, who subjected members of the crew to stand out on the bow for long hours in light clothing in the Southern Ocean as a form of control and torture, even though the crewmember may have done no wrong. Sadly, the New Zealand police cannot react, because the incidents happened beyond the 12-mile territorial limit and is outside their jurisdiction. They have also said any complaints need to be in writing and translated into English. But that does not suggest it does not happen. The claims of torture and sexual abuse being rife on our high seas are now starting to be publicly revealed because of potentially previous cover-ups in the industry and intimidatory gagging of these crew members. Southern Storm Fishing has publicly rejected claims of employee mistreatment and says it is the focus of an anti-foreign worker campaign being undertaken by its competitors in the
