‘The boat owners treat us as slaves’: crews report abuse and death on long-haul vessels

‘The boat owners treat us as slaves’: crews report abuse and death on long-haul vessels

The unexplained death of a fisher on a Chinese-owned trawler in the Indian Ocean illustrates the lack of accountability in the seafood industry, say advocatesRicky* was one of the first to see his crewmate’s dead body. It was 2023 and he was six months into a stint at sea, working on a longline tuna boat in the Indian Ocean for $480 a month. The crew were mostly Indonesian, like Ricky, or Chinese, like the captain and owners of the boat.In the d…