Recently I read a story that I found truly shocking. It was about the sinking of a Korean factory fishing trawler into the frigid depths of the Bering Sea off of Russias east coast. This particular factory fishing trawler was on Greenpeaces International Blacklist for companies and vessels involved in illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing.
In the early hours of a December day last year, a large wave hit the vessel as it hauled in a catch of pollock. Dozens died, eight were rescued, and more than 25 missing, presumed dead.
Onboard the Korean ship at the time of the sinking were 35 Indonesians, 13 Filipinos, 11 South Koreans and one Russian inspector. The coroner said the low-wage Indonesians and Filipinos were abandoned as the ship sank. He described it literally as, every man for himself.
Southeast Asian men are often found on these huge fishing vessels and sometimes they are badly exploited. In fact, Interpol, the international police force, held its very first conference on slavery and invited Greenpeace to participate. We were asked because people in Greenpeace have seen those working conditions 
close up.
I spoke with Farah Obaidullah, an oceans campaigner with Greenpeace, who gave a paper a
t that conference.
Because these ships can stay far out on the high seas and away from curious onlookers, she says sometimes the conditions onboard amount to criminal activities, because these workers are basically kept as slaves. They may not have proper clothing to be working outside in frigid weather. Sometimes theres no health care if a worker falls ill. Some ships dont even have showers or decent toilet facilities for their workers.
And these ships are truly huge. Ariana Densham of Greenpeace UK described them as longer than 12 red London buses lined up and heavier than the Eiffel Tower. Because supply vessels come to them with food and supplies, they can stay out on the high seas for months, or even years.
Of course, their nets are huge and lots of dead marine life like turtles and dolphins are hauled aboard, then tossed over as unusable. It’s reckless and is seriously damaging fish stocks around the world. This is the modern face of industrial fishing.
The reason this can happen is that the high seas are really wild. No one sees what happens there. The ship owners can keep track of their boats and now so can we because of cool technology like this map from the Global Fishing Watch.
But how can you change things, especially if youre never going to be near the high seas?
JP Davidson has been on the trail. In last months podcast, he looked for easy-to-use apps that might help him shop for food in a way that reflected his values. This month, JP is looking to see if you can help save the world from your sofa. (Hint: Not really, apparently it takes a little more oomph than that.) Mobile activism may be one solution. Because people carry their mobile phones with them all the time, they can be used in many ways to help the environment.
In drought-ridden southern California, the Water Waster app in Long Beach is helping save desperately needed water by allowing citizens to report public water leaks and waste to the city.
Working in conjunction with people who are citizen scientists can also be quite effective. Theyre called citizen scientists because they arent trained as scientists but their anecdotal information is changing the world. Traditionally, bird watchers and the like have done this by noting the different times when birds appear etc., all of which paints a picture of how and when the environment changes. Technology has allowed lots of people to join them.
Here are other apps which may be of interest:
- Project Noah – to explore and document wildlife and a platform to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere.
- iRecord Butterflies – identify and keep track of butterflies in the UK
- Aircasting – works with an air quality sensor to read local air quality
- I See Smoke PA – air pollution reporting in Pennsylvania
- Marine Defenders – to report oil spills and water pollution
- #Climate – using social media to amplify the work of climate change organizations
Listen to this months podcast and explore more stories in the Greenpeace Podcast archives.
