The Catch: How Fishing Companies Reinvented Slavery and Plunder the Oceans

In November 2008, near Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean, a Korean ship came upon a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Tai Ching 21 was eerily silent. The lifeboat and three rafts were missing, and so were all 29 Taiwanese officers and Chinese, Indonesian, and Filipino crew who had been aboard. A quest to discover the identities of the lost men led New Zealand journalist Michael Field into a dark world of foreign-flagged vessels fishing in the ocean as far south as Antarctica. In The Catch he reveals what he discovered: horrifying examples of modern slavery in which men from poor countries are trapped on filthy, unsafe ships, treated brutally by captains and officers, and receive little or no pay. The fishing companies Field lays bare are ruthless. Their irresponsible and often illegal fishing practices are stripping the world’s seas and threatening the food supply of people everywhere, propelling us towards one of the environmental tragedies of our times. These stories play out on the waters of New Zealand and the Pacific, but the same practices are happening all over the world. Can we ignore the fates both of these men and the catch they fish for?

1120148797
The Catch: How Fishing Companies Reinvented Slavery and Plunder the Oceans

In November 2008, near Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean, a Korean ship came upon a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Tai Ching 21 was eerily silent. The lifeboat and three rafts were missing, and so were all 29 Taiwanese officers and Chinese, Indonesian, and Filipino crew who had been aboard. A quest to discover the identities of the lost men led New Zealand journalist Michael Field into a dark world of foreign-flagged vessels fishing in the ocean as far south as Antarctica. In The Catch he reveals what he discovered: horrifying examples of modern slavery in which men from poor countries are trapped on filthy, unsafe ships, treated brutally by captains and officers, and receive little or no pay. The fishing companies Field lays bare are ruthless. Their irresponsible and often illegal fishing practices are stripping the world’s seas and threatening the food supply of people everywhere, propelling us towards one of the environmental tragedies of our times. These stories play out on the waters of New Zealand and the Pacific, but the same practices are happening all over the world. Can we ignore the fates both of these men and the catch they fish for?

26.99 In Stock
The Catch: How Fishing Companies Reinvented Slavery and Plunder the Oceans

The Catch: How Fishing Companies Reinvented Slavery and Plunder the Oceans

by Michael Field
The Catch: How Fishing Companies Reinvented Slavery and Plunder the Oceans

The Catch: How Fishing Companies Reinvented Slavery and Plunder the Oceans

by Michael Field

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Overview

In November 2008, near Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean, a Korean ship came upon a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Tai Ching 21 was eerily silent. The lifeboat and three rafts were missing, and so were all 29 Taiwanese officers and Chinese, Indonesian, and Filipino crew who had been aboard. A quest to discover the identities of the lost men led New Zealand journalist Michael Field into a dark world of foreign-flagged vessels fishing in the ocean as far south as Antarctica. In The Catch he reveals what he discovered: horrifying examples of modern slavery in which men from poor countries are trapped on filthy, unsafe ships, treated brutally by captains and officers, and receive little or no pay. The fishing companies Field lays bare are ruthless. Their irresponsible and often illegal fishing practices are stripping the world’s seas and threatening the food supply of people everywhere, propelling us towards one of the environmental tragedies of our times. These stories play out on the waters of New Zealand and the Pacific, but the same practices are happening all over the world. Can we ignore the fates both of these men and the catch they fish for?


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781927249024
Publisher: Awa Press
Publication date: 11/01/2014
Pages: 276
Product dimensions: 5.70(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Michael Field has been a newspaper and agency reporter for 42 years, mostly covering the South Pacific. A former correspondent for Agence France-Presse, he now reports for Fairfax Media and is Pacific affairs commentator on Radio New Zealand’s Nine to Noon program. He is the author of Black Saturday: Killings in Samoa, Speight of Violence: Inside Fiji's 2000 Coup, and Swimming with Sharks: Tales from the South Pacific Frontline.

Table of Contents

Author's note 1

Preface 5

1 Dangerous seas 9

2 Frozen to death 13

3 Crime 21

4 Oyang 37

5 Southern blue whiting 43

6 Cover-up 53

7 Slavery 59

8 Verdict 67

9 Tangaroa's bounty 75

10 Pirate ship 89

11 The politics of fishing 101

12 Aboard a Soviet trawler 109

13 Inquiry 119

14 Melilla 127

16 The Southern Ocean 145

17 The Pacific prize 161

18 The China syndrome 173

19 The Russians are coming 185

20 Wars 191

21 Hope 199

Epilogue 209

Acknowledgements 213

Abbreviations 215

Common and scientific names 216

Endnotes 218

Index 230

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