Report From AOS USA Fishing Work Group

The workshop was conducted by Margaret Bryan Curole of Commecial Fishermen of America:

Margaret is married to a Shrimper and really understands a Fishers qualities: independent, don't want to ask for help.  They are marginalized by society and solitary in nature.  They tend to throw up walls instead of reaching out. This behavioral set of traits is especially apparent under stress as recently aggravated  because of recent reduced stock of shrimp, unfair quotas,  introduction of cheap farm raised shrimp;  and new regulations related to the introduction invasive species into US waters.

She explained the detrimental effect of foreign aquaculture by giving product figures in fish farming vs natural fishing. These shrimp are not raised in a natural environment and their farmers use antibiotics, only 5% of which are tested for levels. Shrimpers in LA in 2000 were hauling in great prices for the shrimp.  However, in 2001 importers from China and Brazil began to dump their aqua cultural product and drove the price down to .25 per pound..  Very soon Shrimpers could not compete.  This created broken-links in a legacy of ancestral fishing.  Identity lost. The outcome is stress from heart attacks, suicide, and broken families.

Also critical to the wild shrimp is the issue of invasive species. These species are hazardous because they change the balance of the ecosystem .  They arrive in the ballast water of ships, and are pumped out while the vessel is loading in order to maintain proper trim.  This water contains all kids of marine life and is the largest source of invasive marine life. 

Since almost all marine species include a planktonic stage in their life cycle it is easy to see how they can be introduced into the Gulf of Mexico and our rivers through the discharge of this water or by  hitch hiking on the mussels or other marine life attached to the ships or by swimming in the discharged ballast water.  1.

Two  suggestions were discussed by participants to remedy the decimation of the Gulf Shrimper way of life:

A.Treat  Fishers as harvesters like land farmers they should have subsidies too. Government subsidies for fuel for example to offset the cost of paying the harbor master.

B.  More personal responsibility  in choosing quality fresh product and being willing to pay for the difference instead of gorging on cheap imitation or fare tainted with antibiotics and raised in a controlled environment, more still water than wild species, more chemicals like antibiotics.

The Catholic Way to Eat has been written by Zoe Romanowsky  in Our Sunday Visitor.  It gives us food for thought on this subject:

Our Sunday Visitor

Zoe Romanowsky

As Christians, we're rightly encouraged to care more about our souls than our bodies. But this doesn't mean food isn't important. In fact, Catholics are the perfect people to champion the rebirth of a culinary culture. Here are five good reasons why you should join the effort:

1. Preparing and sharing a meal is the most intimate thing we can do together.

2. We're called to treat our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit.

3. We are charged with being good stewards of the earth.

4. Food is a key to renewing culture.

5. God made us to enjoy food.

1.  Ships move 10 to 12 Billion tons of ballast water around the globe each year.  http://www.stlwaterfrontcouncil.org/Species.htm

PRESS RELEASE                                                                                                           January 4 2010

Alert!  Issue No.22

Focus on the regulators

Those who make all the rules and regulations that govern the design and operation of ships need to be sensitive to human element implications in all that they do. This is according to the International Human Element Bulletin Alert! in its latest issue - which launches the third series of these human element awareness bulletins.

Let's face it. How often do those on the receiving end of regulations, who are charged to operate ships according to the rules that somebody else has made, shake their heads in frustration and bewilderment at the way that the regulations seem to make their lives harder. "If only the bureaucrats", they mutter, "had understood how ships are operated..."

Alert! points out that some three years ago, the industry's principal regulator - the International Maritime Organization - introduced its own checklist to help all regulators properly consider the human element as they framed new regulations or amended others. It is a step in the right direction, but of course there are plenty of other people who have a finger in the regulations pie, perhaps translating international regulations into local legislation, or even those at company level. Do they all consider the same HE checklist before sending their regulations off to their ships? There is a strong recommendation that they do this, if their rules, regulations and instructions are to be 'user-friendly'.

The centrespread of this Alert! bulletin carries a useful guide for everyone through the whole regulatory chain of command. It is good advice and if it was followed, better rules and regulations would clearly result.

The issue also carries articles about how the human element can be placed at the centre of a shipping company's organisation, the significance of the new Maritime Labour Convention, seafarer education and training and the need for an upgrade in HE skills in the shipping company. There is an introduction to Human Organisational Factors (HOF) and perspectives from Hong Kong and South Korea. And an accident investigation report points to the contribution of fatigue - yet again - in a grounding incident involving an exhausted master. It indicates that there is still lots to take on board about human element issues.

Ends

Notes to editors

The Alert! Project - launched in October 2003 - is a campaign to improve the awareness of the human element in the maritime industry.  This is a Nautical Institute project, sponsored by Lloyd's Register Educational Trust.

Further information about the human element awareness initiative, and electronic copies of Alert! can be found at www.he-alert.org.

The Nautical Institute is the world's leading international professional body for qualified mariners. Through its Constitution, the Council of the Nautical Institute is directed to 'provide the strongest possible professional focus, dedicated to improving standards of those in control of seagoing craft, while maintaining the Institute as an international centre of nautical excellence.'

Founded in 1972, it is a thriving international professional body for qualified mariners, with 40 branches world-wide and some 7,000 members in over 110 countries.

The Lloyd's Register Educational Trust (LRET) is an independent charity that was established in 2004. Its principal purpose is to support advances in transportation, science, engineering and technology education, training and research worldwide for the benefit of all. It also funds work that enhances the safety of life and property at sea, on land and in the air. The LRET focuses on four categories:

• pre-university education: through appropriate organisations, promotes careers in science, engineering and technology to young people, their parents and teachers
• university education: through universities and colleges, provides undergraduate and post-graduate scholarships and awards at first degree/masters levels to students of exceptional ability
• vocational training and professional development: supports professional institutions, educational and training establishments working with people of all ages.
• research: funds existing or new centres of excellence at institutes and universities.

Lloyd's Register Educational Trust

Registered Charity No. 1111853

71 Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 4BS, UK

Tel: +44 (0)20 7709 9166  Email: lret@lr.org

May God Bless you with Smooth Sailing throughout your day!