Isles’ longline industry little changed after investigation

In September, an extensive Associated Press investigation detailing poor labor conditions aboard Hawaii longline vessels that catch ahi and swordfish sparked national attention and public outrage. Some of the foreign fishermen who crew the boats were found to be living in squalor and confined to vessels for years at a time.

Hawaii’s congressional delegation quickly issued statements condemning the labor conditions and vowing reforms. Whole Foods suspended its purchases from the Honolulu Fish Auction. And state legislators held hearings and debated measures that would further regulate longline fishing.

But eight months later, little appears to have changed when it comes to protecting the foreign fishermen who can’t stray from their American boats docked at Honolulu Harbor without risking deportation. The longline industry — which vowed to weed out any bad actors, while also criticizing the news reports as exaggerated — has been largely left to police itself.

State lawmakers shelved bills that sought to address the labor conditions during this year’s legislative session that ended earlier this month.

Whole Foods quietly resumed purchasing fish from the Honolulu Fish Auction several days before Christmas.

And Hawaii’s congressional delegation appears to have gotten sidetracked by the political turbulence that has enveloped Washington since Donald Trump assumed the presidency.

U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono is still planning to introduce a bill that would afford the fishermen work visas, according to her office. But the measure will face a dramatically different political landscape than what Hirono had envisioned when she announced her intention in October.

The bill will have to make it past a highly partisan, Republican-controlled Congress and an unpredictable president who has promised to roll back industry regulations, not increase them.

It’s also not clear if the bill will have the support of all her Hawaii colleagues in Washington. U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz and U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard didn’t respond to repeated questions about whether they would back the measure.

Kathryn Xian, who runs the nonprofit Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, said she was frustrated by the political inertia, noting that many local political leaders have known about the labor situation aboard the boats for years, prior to the AP report.

“It’s really disheartening because our leaders should not only care about their constituents, but care about other people in the name of human rights,” she said.

LEGAL PURGATORY

There are more than 600 workers from countries such as Vietnam, Kiribati, the Philippines and Indonesia that crew about 140 longline vessels that dock in Honolulu. The industry has largely operated with foreign workers since the 1990s after being exempted from a federal law requiring 75 percent of workers aboard American fishing vessels be U.S. citizens or legal residents.

The foreign longline fishermen exist in a sort of legal purgatory. While they are legally employed by U.S. vessels, they aren’t actually allowed to step foot on U.S. soil and aren’t afforded the labor protections of American workers.

While locals and tourists at restaurants like Nico’s off Pier 38 dine on the fresh ahi caught by foreign longliners, the fishermen remain confined to their boats just yards away.

The fishermen usually remain docked on the cramped vessels for days, sometimes weeks, before they head back out to sea. If caught straying from their vessel or crossing the street for a soda, they could be deported back to their home countries, usually in Southeast Asia or the Pacific — a fate that has befallen dozens of their fellow crew members over the past decade.

Officials from the Department of Homeland Security have said they lack the authority to enforce provisions in worker contracts, which are usually arranged by agents, and other labor laws. However, they do investigate instances of human trafficking.

Boat owners say it’s hard to attract local fishermen and that it’s the exception rather than the norm for foreign fishermen to face poor working conditions or bad pay. That characterization has been debated in hearings at the state Capitol in recent months, but for many seeking reform, the bottom line is that the workers’ lack of legal status makes them vulnerable to abuse, unpaid wages and even debt bondage.

STATE EFFORTS FAIL

State legislators introduced two bills this session that sought to address the situation.

Rep. Kaniela Ing (D, South Maui) introduced House Bill 438, which would have required vessel owners or captains to provide the state Department of Land and Natural Resources with copies of the workers’ contracts in order for them to receive fishing licenses. The measure was intended to provide a layer of protection for workers, while making sure that they could still work on the vessels.

However, DLNR said it wasn’t the department’s job to oversee labor practices. And officials with the Hawaii Longline Association, which represents vessel owners, contended that the industry was already highly regulated and opposed the bill.

The bill didn’t make it past a single committee hearing.

Another measure, Senate Bill 152, which was introduced by Sen. Karl Rhoads (D, Downtown-Nuuanu- Liliha), would have prohibited DLNR from issuing state fishing licenses to foreign crew members who are unable to legally enter the country.

The measure could have potentially gutted the longline industry, effectively prohibiting the foreign fishermen from continuing to work on the vessels. The bill didn’t make it out of the Senate.

“I am disappointed,” said Rhoads, noting that most vessels were likely fine places to work. “But I don’t discount all of the stories of what would appear to be labor violations and worse in some cases. So I wish my bill passed, but it didn’t.”

CONGRESSIONAL ACTION DELAYED

Both Schatz and Gabbard issued sharply worded statements condemning the labor conditions aboard longline vessels in response to the AP report in September.

Schatz said he was “alarmed and disturbed” and instructed his staff to do a comprehensive review of any available tools that federal agencies might have to ensure the “safety, human rights and dignity of these crewmen.” He also said he was looking at legislative fixes.

Gabbard called the reported labor abuses aboard longline vessels a “problem that has been ignored for years and must be immediately addressed.”

She said at the time that she was working with “major stakeholders to determine the most expedient course of action to put an end to this unacceptable situation.”

But neither indicated last week that they planned to introduce legislation or cited any specific fixes at the federal level that they were pursuing. Both pointed to efforts by the industry to better police itself, such as creating universal crew contracts, as progress.

Meanwhile, Hirono intended to introduce a bill soon after the new Congress was seated in January, but it’s taken months to obtain technical assistance on the measure from federal agencies, according to a Hirono spokesperson who attributed the delays to the change in administrations. The bill is now expected to be introduced in the coming weeks.

The bill would give the fishermen temporary work visas designed to afford them wage protections, safe working conditions and contract enforcement provisions, similar to those afforded other foreign workers that have visas.

The visas would also allow the fishermen to leave their vessels when docked in Honolulu and fly in and out of Honolulu International Airport. Currently, the fishermen must be picked up by the American boats in foreign locations.

While neither Schatz nor Gabbard responded to questions about whether they would support the bill, U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, who wasn’t in office when the AP report came out, plans to help coordinate support for the bill on the House side, according to her chief of staff, Mike Formby.

WHOLE FOODS’ CHANGE OF MIND

Just days after the AP report was published in September, Whole Foods announced that it was suspending buying fish from the Honolulu Fish Auction while it looked into labor conditions aboard the longline vessels.

On Dec. 22, the company resumed buying fish from the auction “after thorough vetting, on-site visits and consultation with an independent advisory firm,” said McKinzey Crossland, a Whole Foods spokeswoman, by email last week.

The company said it found no cases of forced labor or undocumented workers and has added a requirement that Hawaii longline suppliers include a fishing vessel’s name in a software registration system that it uses to track seafood.

“This allows us to trace seafood back to individual boats in Hawaii, and adjust our sourcing if concerns arise in the future,” Crossland said.