Tag Archives: Hawaii Seafood Council
For Immediate Release – Hawaii Seafood Council: Hawaii Fishing Industry takes action to protect foreign crew from labor abuse
For Immediate Release Hawaii Seafood Council 1130 N Nimitz Hwy, Suite A263 Honolulu, Hawaii 96817 – Hawaii Longline Fishing Industry takes immediate action to assess and establish controls to protect foreign crew from forced labor and labor abuse. On September 8, 2016, an article was published by the Associated Press (AP) which included allegations of forced labor (slavery), human trafficking and poor working conditions on Hawaii longline fishing vessels that use foreign contracted crewmen. “The industry takes the AP report seriously, is actively assessing the situation and is committed to making certain that if found, forced labor and labor abuse is eliminated from the fishing industry” says Jim Cook, Hawaii fishing industry member and advocate. Read the press release, click here 17:46
Hawaii longline industry creates task force to respond to allegations of human trafficking and poor working conditions.
Hawaii longline industry leaders say they have formed a task force and hired an expert on slavery in response to media reports about human trafficking, forced labor and poor working conditions aboard some of their boats. “We’re trying to get a sort of fleet assessment, get our arms around the problem and see where we’re going to take it,” said Jim Cook, who owns several longline fishing boats and serves on the Hawaii Longline Association board of directors. He said Monday that the goal is to weed out the “bad actors,” in part by requiring a universal crew contract that incorporates international norms to address forced labor. That contract is being finalized and should be “ready to rock” in the next couple days, Cook said. The task force also includes John Kaneko, program manager of the Hawaii Seafood Council, Khang Dang, president of Quota Management, and Katrina Nakamura, who was also hired as a consultant to provide guidance to the industry. Read the story here 08:25
