In 2011, the average annual consumption of fish rose to a record high of 37 pounds per person, four times as much as people consumed in 1950. Fishing enterprises over-exploit an estimated 85 percent of fish stocks - meaning that capture rates are far out-pacing breeding rates.
The current state of commercial fishing is largely characterized by myopic profit goals and brutality, exercised against both wildlife and human workers. In industry-speak, the phrase "bycatch" is the euphemistic term that describes all the non-salable (and often endangered) wildlife captured in a haul. This collateral damage is dumped back out to sea, either dead or dying. Shrimp-trawlers dump up to 90 percent of their catch overboard. Animals that fall victim to the industry's indiscriminate fishing methods include dolphins, sea turtles, whales and sharks. Annually, up to 320,000 seabirds perish in industrial fishing lines, threatening albatrosses and shearwaters with extinction.
Cheap seafood production has also led to human rights abuse. The Guardian revealed that Thai fishmeal vessels use forced labor from Burmese and Cambodian migrants. The report found that Thailand's Charoen Pokhand (CP) Foods - the world's largest shrimp farmer - is guilty of using slave-caught fishmeal to feed the shrimp it raises for global consumption. Lured by Thai brokers offering employment, migrants end up being sold to boat captains. Once out to sea, migrants are forced to work up to 22-hour shifts without pay and with few rations. Captains reportedly use extreme violence to keep laborers in line and order execution-style killings to discourage resistance. This violence is a vital link in the chain that carries CP's cheap shrimp to Western retailers, including Walmart, Costco and Tesco.
They pose great risks to the future wellbeing of our oceans and generate violence toward vulnerable migrants. If this is the cost of cheap seafood, is it worth it? With the fate of earth's ecological well-being and the future of humanity at stake, hopefully others will recognize that the wholesale destruction of the oceans and human slavery are not worth a $3 bag of shrimp.
An extract from this article
The current state of commercial fishing is largely characterized by myopic profit goals and brutality, exercised against both wildlife and human workers. In industry-speak, the phrase "bycatch" is the euphemistic term that describes all the non-salable (and often endangered) wildlife captured in a haul. This collateral damage is dumped back out to sea, either dead or dying. Shrimp-trawlers dump up to 90 percent of their catch overboard. Animals that fall victim to the industry's indiscriminate fishing methods include dolphins, sea turtles, whales and sharks. Annually, up to 320,000 seabirds perish in industrial fishing lines, threatening albatrosses and shearwaters with extinction.
Cheap seafood production has also led to human rights abuse. The Guardian revealed that Thai fishmeal vessels use forced labor from Burmese and Cambodian migrants. The report found that Thailand's Charoen Pokhand (CP) Foods - the world's largest shrimp farmer - is guilty of using slave-caught fishmeal to feed the shrimp it raises for global consumption. Lured by Thai brokers offering employment, migrants end up being sold to boat captains. Once out to sea, migrants are forced to work up to 22-hour shifts without pay and with few rations. Captains reportedly use extreme violence to keep laborers in line and order execution-style killings to discourage resistance. This violence is a vital link in the chain that carries CP's cheap shrimp to Western retailers, including Walmart, Costco and Tesco.
They pose great risks to the future wellbeing of our oceans and generate violence toward vulnerable migrants. If this is the cost of cheap seafood, is it worth it? With the fate of earth's ecological well-being and the future of humanity at stake, hopefully others will recognize that the wholesale destruction of the oceans and human slavery are not worth a $3 bag of shrimp.
An extract from this article
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