Slavery at Sea and Tuna

The author reads an article he had published about slavery at sea and the tuna industry.

Transcript

                                   Slavery and Tuna

The Associated Press recently came out with a sad expose on North Korean fishermen who are enslaved in Chinese fleets. A few years back my wife and I were well acquainted with the same issue- only our contact was with South Korean fishermen. Because of that we decline eating tuna. 

My wife and I taught in American Samoa. There is only one notable industry – the tuna canneries.  Major suppliers for the canneries were Korean, with their decrepit long-liner vessels.  We had heard of altercations between the crews of these boats and the local Polynesians.  Koreans were usually on the losing end, and murders, although rare, were not unheard if. Concerned, and with a prod from me, my Korean wife volunteered as a translator for the police.

            Soon after, we received a call.  A Korean fisherman had been arrested. Mr. Peck was 30-ish and claimed his 18-month contract had been extended to 36 months without his consent.  Furthermore, he alleged he had not been on land for 9 months. In Samoa, he had jumped ship and had been caught, beaten and taken to a remote village. In the village he stayed with a Samoan family and was encouraged to return to his ship.  His money was stolen and when the opportunity arose, he ran away.

            As my wife questioned him, he asked if he could be deported. He casually said, “The time in prison would not matter.”

            I asked, “What time in prison?”

            Mr. Peck said it was in their contracts – “If we jump ship, we finish our contract time in a Korean prison.”

            Mind you, these were South Koreans. I was shocked. The Samoan police said Mr. Peck would have to go to jail in Samoa until the Korean fisheries representative arrived.  Instead, we talked the police into releasing Mr. Peck to us.  For three weeks he stayed with us and proved himself a good chess player and an honest hard workingman. I remember coming home and finding him on his hands and knees scrubbing our wooden floors. We had not asked him to do it.

            That day, inspired by Mr. Peck on our floor, my wife and I presented ourselves to the Korean consulate/fisheries representative. The fisheries had a stranglehold on the men because among other things, they held their passports. At our urging, Mr. Peck was deported to Korea as he wanted and did not have to go to prison.  That was the end I thought.

     Weeks passed before another call came from the police – eleven men from a thirteen-man crew had jumped ship.  “We want to be deported.” They yelled.  They claimed the captain and the first mate beat them with a wrench. They had not slept for more than 4 hours at a time, and their contracts had also been illegally extended. 

      One crewmember claimed he would hang himself properly before he would set foot on the ship again.  An older man confided that the man had already tried.

     My wife, not sure what to say asked, “When was the last time all of you have eaten?”

In unison they roared “Two days.”

     I did not think we could house eleven men for three weeks like we had Mr. Peck, but at least we could feed them.

     The police released the eleven men, and we walked to our nearby house. There they squatted quietly on our clean wooden floor while we hastily prepared simple rice and Ramen soup. I was touched as they wolfed down food. The police showed up soon after and brought them to the local jail. Again, we met with the consulate and this time he was annoyed with us. But the eleven were deported. A friendly Samoan policewoman told us to watch our backs at night because we had some “big enemies” now. At first, we were quite frightened, but nothing happened. We assisted one more fisherman escape; a Buddhist monk and then we too decided it was time to leave American Samoa.

            Admittedly this was a few years ago. Currently the nations which supply tuna (Skip Jack and yellow fin tuna - predominantly) to Samoa are, China, Taiwan, and Thailand. I would suspect there are North Koreans onboard the vessels flying a Chinese flag.

 I don’t know what the solution is and certainly lots of people get worked up over dolphins and tuna. As for the two of us, we will always have trouble eating tuna.

                                           “Oh hear us who pray to thee

                                             For those who toil on the sea.”

-       William whiting