Who pays the price for cheap seafood?: Labour rights, ecological crisis and rural development challenges in fisheries

My research focuses on social injustice at sea at the intersection of sustainability and working conditions in industrial and small-scale fisheries of the Global South. There are an estimated 260 million workers in marine fisheries worldwide, of which 50 million are engaged directly in fishing. Globally fishing is in dramatic decline requiring fishing vessels to travel further and further to fish. As costs increase, the fishing industry is kept afloat by cheap labour, often from migrant populations, who accept working with worse conditions for lower pay. Industrial fishing vessels are among the most dangerous workplaces in the world, due the unpredictable nature of catches and hazardous conditions at sea. Moreover, being excluded from land-based laws when far out at sea, make fishing particularly difficult to monitor and control.

Currently, I pay particular attention to labour rights violations of fish workers in industrial fishing. These workers bear the burden of the cheap seafood in global supply chains underpinned by neoliberal policies and precarious migration regimes that continue to worsen the ecological crisis in fisheries. Through this research, I aim to expand rural development research in two ways; 1) by tracing the causes and consequences of rural migration for work in fisheries and, 2) reframing ‘the ocean as a working space’ with conditions that would be unacceptable for terrestrial work. These two aspects constitute currently a gap in agrarian studies requiring urgent attention.

In this lecture, I will discuss the ‘labour governance in fisheries framework’ I propose to understand working conditions and injustices, during and beyond work places, in the industrial fishing. The framework draws on the concepts of labour regime and labour precarity, situated within labour studies and critical geography. Work at sea has significantly different working conditions and material requirements than working for example on a farm, including access to own food for subsistence and social or regulatory support during months or up to a year-long fishing trips. This distinct space of the ocean means that the working conditions are also distinct from those on land. Labour precarity serves as a concept to explore the conditions and mobility of labour, formal compared to informal work, and the potential migration strategies workers can use to overcome exploitation.

I draw on empirical material from two previous research projects which examined the EU-initiated reform of Thailand’s labour laws in fisheries 2015-2020. This reform was the result of the so called modern slavery scandal in the Thai fishing industry which placed a spotlight on labour abuse in global fisheries. Based on in-depth qualitative research where I have used methods such as observations, interviews, document and policy analysis, as well as carried out research on policy interventions, I explain how Burmese and Cambodian migrant fish workers end up working on Thai fishing boats, and how the hardships they experience reveal the failures of migratory and labour policies in the global fishing industry, where Thailand is a major exporter of seafood to the EU.

My future research will explore further the intersections between labour governance and ecological resilience in global seafood supply chains. This includes the fishmeal supply chain which feeds European fish farms in for example salmon. I will also expand my research sites from Thailand and Myanmar to include Cambodia and Vietnam, to generate wider learning and policy impact across increasingly connected South-East Asian countries. I have in my projects included extensive outreach ambitions, such as making the website justseafood.org and the podcast series ‘Fishy work’. The present moment is a critical time to promote labour rights in supply chains, as we see a growing body of international regulations intent on ensuring human rights and environmental sustainability globally, e.g. the EU Due Diligence law and modern slavery laws across major seafood market countries like Australia and UK. These internal regulations are applicable to all resource producing countries including those in South East Asia.