When I see commercial fishing operations offshore the Hamakua Coast near my home, I am reminded of the overwhelming problem of fishing boat slavery where normally 75 percent of crew members are professional Southeast Asian fishermen held under horrendous conditions of bondage as originally exposed by an Associated Press investigation.
They may be working 20 to 22 hours per day at 70 cents per hour without benefit of any humanitarian consideration including decent sanitation, open sores from bedbug bites, chronic food shortages, untreated injuries from dangerous working conditions, and continual toil for uninterrupted years at sea. When their last bit of energy has expired, their captains not infrequently abandoned them perhaps in an anonymous Asian island graveyard or the depths of an ocean burial.
Hawaii state legislator Rep. Kaniela Ing has done back-breaking diligence to get legislation passed which would keep track of all foreign fishermen on American boats to curb sea slavery. Unfortunately, his efforts were stymied by the Hawaiian Long Line Association claiming fishing operations are already overregulated by the feds. But as long as the criminal conditions of slavery exist, much more needs to be done to stop these unspeakable atrocities beginning right here in Hawaiian waters. Let Rep. Ing be the guiding light for the rest of the Hawaii Legislature whose members should be rising up in righteous indignation rather than retreating to their comfort zones of doing nothing. Shame!
I refuse to purchase any slave caught fish which can be found in abundance at all major grocery and big box stores and urge everyone else to do the same as a substantial step in halting fishing boat slavery.
Janet Ashkenazy is a resident of Kukuihaele