Seafarers in Industrial Fishing: Examining migrant worker precarity

This talk focuses on the labour challenges facing migrant fish workers in industrial fishing. Although global fisheries are often criticized for their contributions to the degradation of fish habitat and ocean ecosystems, the unacceptable working conditions for the mostly migrant workers has drawn considerable attention in recent years. As a result, environmental NGOs have incorporated the human rights of workers into their sustainability campaigns, governments have reformed labour policies for workers, and seafood companies have taken action to reduce their risks of being identified with human rights abuses of workers in their supply chains. Even as things have begun to improve, fish work remains particularly unacceptable. In this talk, I outline how long-term structural marginalization of seafarers in fishing has made fish workers particularly vulnerable, which was further highlighted during the pandemic. I then focus on what a decent work in fisheries agenda could entail and identify a series of fisheries-related policies that are necessary for a comprehensive regime for preventing human rights abuses and unacceptable working conditions in industrial fisheries.