Whereas, the Apostleship of the Sea of the United States of America (AOS-USA) is the professional association of Catholic Maritime Ministers, Cruise Ship Priests, Catholic Mariners and all those who support the ministry to the People of the Sea;

Whereas, AOS-USA labors on behalf of the dignity and human rights of every person in the maritime community.

Whereas, the Gulf Coast shrimp fishermen have worked with fishery managers to develop fishing gear that reduces by catch;

Whereas, the United States shrimpers comply with strict regulations regarding by-catch reduction devices and turtle excluder devices;

Whereas, these efforts have increased the ecological and economic values of wild caught shrimp;

Whereas, the United States shrimpers are carrying out a successful marketing campaign for their wild shrimp product;

Whereas, the Southern Shrimp Alliance has submitted a letter to the United States Department of States on behalf of Mr. Andy Hall, and the Government of Thailand's charges of criminal defamation against Mr. Hall;

Whereas, the use of human trafficked labor and slave labor impacts every shrimping family in America;

Whereas, the United States has enacted an anti-trafficking law and the United Nations adopted the Palermo Protocol;

And whereas, Thailand is a treaty ally of the United States;

Therefore, AOS-USA is fundamentally opposed to any type of human trafficking and slave labor;

Therefore, the AOS-USA calls upon the United States Department of State to press the Government of Thailand to end slavery and human trafficking in the fishing and shrimp farming industry, and the immediate release of Mr. Andy Hall;

Therefore, the AOS-USA encourages consumers not to purchase seafood products that utilize slave labor;

And therefore, the AOS-USA encourages consumers to purchase seafood products that are not harvested using human trafficked labor and slavery, but purchase seafood that has been harvested in an environmentally safe and sustainable manner.

The arrival of fall can mean only one thing: Seafood.

With an innovative program based on neighbor helping neighbor, the Knights of Columbus is helping people in the Philippines get back to work after the devastating effects of Typhoon Haiyan. When the storm swept through the central portion of the archipelago in November 2013, more than 6,000 people were killed and millions more were forced to flee their homes.

Under the Knights of Columbus Livelihood Project, sponsored by the Supreme Council, laborers who lost their businesses due to the storm are being paid to construct motorized boats for fishermen whose vessels and equipment were washed away by the 195-mph winds and 20-foot storm surges. The first boats were delivered in late March, and periodic deliveries since then will bring the total number of boats to more than 100 by the end of the summer. Along with the boats, the fishermen receive fishing gear such as nets, hooks, lures, nylon string and heavy-duty rope.

The Livelihood Project also includes the delivery of seeds to farmers whose topsoil was washed away by the floods and whose land was covered by toppled trees. With financial assistance from the Supreme Council, local Knights purchased and distributed 10,000 coconut seedlings to help farmers replant and provided chainsaws so that they could clear their land of trees, which could also be used for wood to rebuild their homes.

A NETWORK OF SUPPORT

The Diocese of Borongon and the Archdiocese of Palo, the two hardest-hit areas, received more than $50,000 in emergency relief funds from the Supreme Council late last year, as Knights worked to get emergency food and water supplies to storm victims in remote areas that had not yet been reached by international relief agencies. Drawing on reports from Knights in local councils throughout the affected areas, the Visayas State Council began delivering canned food and bottled water shortly after the storm hit, and continued relief efforts for months with funds from the Supreme Council (see Columbia, February 2014). In total, more than 30,000 food packs were prepared and distributed, in addition to other necessities such as used clothes, tarpaulins, corrugated metal for temporary roofing, and handheld tools.

Now, the Livelihood Project is designed to go beyond these basic relief efforts to provide storm victims with the means to return to work so that they can support themselves and their families. The project is being funded by the Order's Philippine Disaster Relief Fund, which grew to more than $800,000 with donations from Knights and other donors. The Supreme Council made an initial grant of $250,000 when the storm first hit on Nov. 8, 2013.

The fishermen chosen as beneficiaries were identified through a network of Filipino Knights who walked through the devastated neighborhoods to assess the needs of survivors. There are more than 300,000 Knights in the Philippines, where the typhoon was given the local name of Yolanda. Key organizers of the project include Supreme Director Alonso Tan, Visayas Deputy Rodrigo Sorongon, Visayas Secretary Anthony Nazario, and regional deputy Fred Lagria, whose home in Tacloban was damaged in the storm.

"The damage to the area has been enormous; I estimate that it will take at least three years for things to get back to normal," Lagria said. "Everyone has worked hard to help, with those who have something sharing with those who lost everything, and people looking out for their neighbors. The Knights have been here all along, and I am very blessed to be part of this effort."

Hilario Ando, a team leader of the boat builders in Borongon City, said, "All of us here in this fishing village are involved in the work. Now that we have this project, we can buy food for our families and send our children to school."

COMING TO THE RESCUE

A delivery of 40 new motorized boats was made in Basey, Western Samar, in early June, with Filipino K of C leaders taking part in a boat blessing and a ceremony for transferring the boats to the fishermen and their families.

"Typhoon Yolanda damaged our house. A big tree fell on the roof, and I had a small boat that was also destroyed," said Danilo Abayan, a fisherman in Eastern Samar, near the center of the storm. "I wasn't able to save it because the wind was so strong."

He added, "I feel happy and thankful for this help from the Knights of Columbus. With my age and our current situation, I never thought I could afford to have my own boat because I lost my source of income."

Likewise, Danilo Bihas of Samar was able to get back to fishing to support his wife and their two young children.

"Our situation was difficult after Yolanda," said Bihas, who received a motorized boat from the Livelihood Project. "I don't know how many coconut trees fell on our house. Through God's mercy, we were able to survive. My family is still intact. But we lost everything - my fishing equipment and our house. We saved nothing except some clothes. The rest was swept away by the typhoon. I thought I would never find work again."

Gerardo Casilides lives on an island off the coast of Eastern Samar that was completely flooded in the storm.

"Our house was right in the path of the storm and was destroyed, so I went to my neighbor's with one of my children," he recalled. "But that house was also destroyed. We were right inside the house at the time and two persons were washed out by the storm surge. They were a married couple. But I was also able to rescue another couple and three more individuals. We had to hold on to anything we could find. We couldn't cross to safer ground because the water level was too high, so we waited till the water subsided."

After receiving a boat, Casilides said, "This boat is our main source of income because we are on an island and have nowhere to go but to the sea. I thank the people of the Knights of Columbus for this big help to our family, and not just to us but to all the other recipients."

Dear Friends,

The following are articles from the Maritime Industry, regarding the Ebola Virus and the steps that are being taken to deal with this disease in such a global industry.

http://gcaptain.com/shipping-industry-cautioned-over-ebola-outbreak/ 

August 4, 2014 

http://www.marinelink.com/news/shipping-industry-issues375349.aspx 

August 19, 2014 

http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/ebola-virus-disease-west-africa-guidelines-for-the-maritime-industry/ 

 Courtesy: TV36 Nigeria  

30 September 2014    

Courtesy: MaritimeLink.Com

By: Jeff Mason; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Mohammad Zargham, Frances Kerry and Jeff Mason in Washington, Jonathan Kaminsky in New Orleans and Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Writing by Jim Loney and Tom Brown; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCool  

Posted By: Eric Haun
17 October 2014

President Barack Obama appointed a former White House adviser as U.S. Ebola "czar" on Friday as the global death toll from the disease that has hit mostly three West African countries rose to more than 4,500.

Amid growing concerns about the spread of the virus in the United States, authorities said a Texas health worker who may have had contact with specimens from an Ebola patient was quarantined on a cruise ship.

Obama, facing criticism from some lawmakers over his administration's handling of efforts to contain the virus, appointed Ron Klain, a lawyer who previously served as chief of staff to Vice Presidents Joe Biden and Al Gore, to oversee the U.S. response to the virus.

Klain's appointment and the cruise ship incident highlighted anxiety over the threat from Ebola even though there have been just three cases diagnosed in the country, all in Dallas, Texas. They were a Liberian, Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed in the country, and two nurses who were among the team of health workers caring for him up to his death last week.

The worst-hit countries have been Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where Ebola has taken 4,546 lives since the outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever began there in March, according to a new report on Friday from the World Health Organization.

That marked a sharp increase from late July, when fewer than than 730 people had died from the disease in West Africa. The virus is spread through direct contact with body fluids from an infected person.

The toll on the worst-hit countries has gone beyond the illness, because of disruptions to farming and marketing. World Food Program said food prices in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone had risen by an average of 24 percent, forcing some families to reduce their intake to one meal a day.

In the United States, Obama sought to convey leadership of the issue by appointing a "czar."

Klain, the president of Case Holdings and general counsel at Revolution LLC, a technology-oriented venture capital firm based in Washington, has been asked to take on coordination of the entire U.S. government response to Ebola, reporting directly to homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco and Susan Rice, Obama's national security adviser.

The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital worker aboard the cruise ship, who did not have direct contact with the now-deceased Liberian patient, Duncan, but could have processed his bodily fluids, left Sunday on a cruise from Galveston, Texas. The health worker has been self-monitoring since Oct. 6 and has not developed a fever or other symptoms of Ebola, the State Department said.

Carnival Cruise Lines said Friday it had been notified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that a passenger on the ship, the Carnival Magic, was a lab supervisor at Texas Health Presbyterian. It said she was deemed to be "very low risk."

The ship can carry 3,690 passengers and 1,367 crew, according to the company's website. Carnival is owned by Carnival Corp.

The State Department said the worker may have processed samples from Duncan 19 days ago. The maximum incubation window for the disease is 21 days, according to the CDC. The worker and a companion voluntarily isolated themselves in their cabin.

Scares Reach the Pentagon
Illustrating the degree of public worry in the United States, the Pentagon confirmed an Ebola scare on Friday in one of its parking lots when a women who recently traveled to Africa vomited after getting off a bus headed to a high-level Marine Corps ceremony.

Officials said they did not know exactly where she had traveled to in Africa or whether she had a fever. The Pentagon said the woman was rushed to a local hospital. [ID:nL2N0SC1I7)

Klain was appointed the day after U.S. lawmakers held a congressional hearing about the administration's handling of Ebola, with some calling for a ban on travel from West Africa, as other politicians have in recent weeks

Obama said he had no philosophical objection to a travel ban but that some travelers might attempt to enter the United States by avoiding screening measures, which could lead to more Ebola cases, not fewer.

On Thursday, he authorized calling up military reservists for the U.S. fight against Ebola in West Africa.

In a sign the disease can be beaten, the World Health Organization said on Friday that the West African country of Senegal was now Ebola-free, although the country was still vulnerable to further cases.

The CDC has said it is expanding its search for people who may have been exposed to Amber Vinson - one of the nurses who treated the Ebola patient in Texas - to include passengers on a flight she made to Cleveland, Ohio in addition to those on her Monday return trip to Texas. Vinson went to Ohio at the weekend on Frontier Airlines while running a slight fever.

Dr. Christopher Braden, a CDC spokesman, said Vinson may have been ill as early as Friday, when she boarded the flight from Dallas to Cleveland.

In Texas, Governor Rick Perry said on Friday health officials were actively monitoring eight air travelers who had close contact with Vinson.

Lawrence Vinson, Amber Vinson's uncle, told CNN on Friday that no travel restrictions were imposed on the nurses who treated Duncan and that his niece did not believe she was putting anyone in danger by boarding the plane to Ohio.

He said his niece did not contact the CDC directly, but health workers in Texas had checked in with her in Ohio and made multiple calls to the CDC to get the go-ahead for her flight back to Dallas on Monday.

Dr. Thomas Frieden, the CDC director, has said it is unlikely passengers who flew with Vinson were infected because the nurse had not vomited or bled on the flight, but he said she should not have boarded the plane.

The first nurse to contract the disease in the United States, Nina Pham, was in fair and stable condition, U.S. health officials said on Friday.