Southeast Pacific Ocean – A recent investigation highlighted severe labor violations and destructive fishing practices within China’s dominant squid fleet operating in these waters.
Grim Conditions Endure for Crew Members
Grim Conditions Endure for Crew Members (Image Credits: Imgs.mongabay.com)
Interviews with 81 former crew members, primarily Indonesians who served on 60 Chinese-flagged vessels from 2020 to 2025, painted a harrowing picture of life at sea.
Nearly half reported physical violence, such as beatings with fishing gear or hair-pulling by officers. Withheld wages affected 76 interviewees, while 72 described debt bondage through recruitment fees and contract manipulations. Captains routinely confiscated passports from 74 workers, trapping them aboard for up to two years without respite.
Medical neglect compounded the dangers. One fisher recounted a colleague who begged to leave due to illness but worked on until death struck months later. Between 2013 and 2023, at least 41 crew members died or vanished from Chinese vessels registered with the South Pacific Regional Fishery Management Organisation (SPRFMO), often from untreated conditions like appendicitis or exhaustion.
- Physical abuse or threats: Over 50% of interviewees
- Excessive overtime (16-hour shifts): 93%
- Isolation from family: Nearly all cases
- Deceptive contracts: 78%
Destructive Tactics Harm Marine Life
Fishers detailed routine shark finning on 60% of the vessels, where crews harpooned sharks, sliced off fins for lucrative markets, and discarded writhing bodies. This occurred even during poor squid hauls, exacerbating waste.
On 33% of boats, workers killed protected marine mammals. Seals faced harpooning for their teeth, turned into souvenirs, while dolphins and false killer whales suffered gaffing or clubbing. Bodies received no use beyond trophies. These acts unfolded amid a fleet of 528 Chinese squid jiggers in 2024, commanding 99% of high-seas effort.
Overfishing loomed large as catches hit 1.2 million metric tons in 2023 before dropping sharply in 2024. Catch-per-unit-effort plummeted to decade lows, signaling strain on jumbo flying squid stocks—a keystone species that predators like whales and sharks rely upon.
Weak Oversight Enables Persistent Issues
The SPRFMO, which oversees high-seas fishing, imposed no catch limits, bycatch bans, or finning prohibitions as of its 14th annual meeting in early March 2026. China’s fleet exploited these voids, with vessels venturing illegally into exclusive economic zones of Peru, Chile, and Ecuador, sometimes masking names to evade detection.
Transshipments at sea funneled catches to hubs like Zhoushan, China, obscuring origins. Companies such as China National Fisheries Corporation supplied squid to the US, EU, and UK markets despite links to these practices.
“China’s industrial squid fishing fleet in the South East Pacific is operating beyond effective scrutiny,” stated Steve Trent, CEO of the Environmental Justice Foundation, which released the report on February 19.
Path Forward Demands Swift Action
Nine proposals at the SPRFMO meeting sought catch caps, buffer zones, labor standards, and better tracking. Coastal nations like Peru demonstrated success with vessel monitoring systems, slashing illegal entries.
Key Takeaways
- Adopt transparency via the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency.
- Enforce catch limits and bycatch rules in SPRFMO waters.
- Market states must verify supply chains to block tainted imports.
This fishery, fueling 42% of global squid landings and billions in trade, teeters on collapse. Protecting workers and ecosystems requires global resolve now. What steps should governments take next? Share your views in the comments.
