Fishy business. The Social Impact of SST.pdf - Act Now!

The fishery observer told us that it is allowed for the fishery observers to take home if theywant any fish. And I asked him if he had taken any fish. He replied that he takes fish homeevery time after his duty on board any fish transferring ships as he wills because its one oftheir privileges to work there. He said before all the fish transferring is done he will do a‘clearance inspection’ to fill out several forms and certify them before the ship leaves forthe open sea to fish again.I inquired of any cases where the fishing vessels fail to report or declare fish or marinecatches especially on endangered species. They would make a report to the NFAheadquarters in Port Moresby and server penalties would be imposed on them. Many caseswere reported, for example the captain failing to declare the exact tonnage of fish and theygot reported and got spot fined. He complained, however, that bribery by fishing companiesof NFA officers is widespread, they got paid to shut them up. He complained that severalbigger cases which warranted revoking fishing permits never got past the NFA. So herecommended that if a reference is to be made in this research, something has to be saidabout the corruption in the NFA. This is regarding granting of fishing permits to foreignvessel as well as prosecuting unlawful fishing practices. He said it looked useless to havelaws and guidelines if we fail to uphold them and instead sell them to foreigners.From my observation I saw a very big difference between the mother boat and the fishingboat. The mother boat is capable of more than 1000 metric tones of fish. 4 Filipino areemployed. One of them befriended us and complained that it is a very hard work. “We work5 rounds a day.”The crews on the big ship looked exceptionally clean, well groomed, andhave suitable working gears which were also clean. Whilst on the small ship everythinglooked greasy on the surface, the crews were filthy and didn’t have proper gear, such asgloves, overalls and ice wares. I felt that the crews on the big boats were well fed and hadgood pay. This was confirmed to me by the Filipino crew I conversed with on the boat. Hesaid that he would prefer to work on the big boat because they had better pay and workingconditions. The fishing vessel he worked is much more hard work than the bigger boatcarrying fish overseas from PNG waters.I was given 2 packets of cigarettes, one by the Filipino chap and the other by the Chinesecrew who seemed like a funny character. He came to us speaking some broken English andwould laugh out loud, and other times danced and playing with his coworkers. He asked if I107