Collecting deepwater fish kills two divers in S. Pacific

[clarionreef]

People,
The pursuit of deepwater wrasses in Vanuatu and deepwater ventralis anthias in Tonga has killed two divers these past few months.
I just got off the phone to my own guy in Tonga and he said the reason there was not so much alarm is because they were both Filipinos under contract and not locals with families.

The grieving families in the Philippines did not apparently count.
They were promised a severance pay...that never got sent....
They were also both pressured to dive deep for the coveted species in order to get paid.

Beautiful fish, dangerous...200 foot depths, and scandalous business.
There is no way to work 200 foot w/ conventional scuba and not kill divers.
The only press so far is this.
There will be more as I dig futher.
Sincerely, Steve

 

[Anonymous]

What desperation will drive a person to do. This is very sad news.

 

[Anonymous]

Working at 200' is not hard. You just have to be trained correctly and stick with your plan. Yes diving air at 200' is nuts! During my Navy days I coulnt go past 182' on air without going loopy. Even diving trimix, I wouldnt want to be swiming all over trying to catch a fish.

Thanks for the news and my condolences to the families. I wish money wasnt such a driving force.

 

[Anonymous]

Ad to the fact they're doing it multiple times a day at times we'd consider suicidal.

Back at their homeland, the choice isn't fish or not make money, it's fish or watch the family starve. There is an area Steve can tell yo more about that has lost over 40 divers to MO collections in persuit of the baby clwon trigger. The area is below the poverty standards of even PI itself which says a lot about the area. Illegal fishing has really hurt the coast, where about 60% of the area population lives. Siltation has played a major roll as well as over fishing. There isn't much else other then fishing there and MO brings more value to their catch then an occasional grouper might.

The ones Steve is talking about where the "lucky" ones that got a chance to work in another counrty at higher wages so they could send back their earnings to feed their families.

 

[Anonymous]

I was also going to point out that it's likely (though I wouldn't know firsthand) that many MO divers may not be working with the best equipment.

 

[sedgro]

Another tragic exploitation of third world laborers. We take the protections we have, like OSHA, for granted. But in all honesty, what is new about this kind of story? How many South Africans have died mining silly bits of a glass looking substance out of the ground (that ironically the company that mines them says we should spend 3 months salary on)? How many Chinese have died working in appaling conditions so that the "world's largest retailer" can bring you "Always Low Prices"? How about child laborers in India and Bangladesh? And long before we and others exploited the Third World, we did it to our own workers.

Thanks for the info Steve. I had naively assumed that all the deeper water stuff coming from Tonga and Vanuatu was a result of someone buying a couple of rebreathers or learning how to dive with mixed gasses. I never dreamed they would import laborers from another country to expoilt (and kill) them.

 

[Anonymous]

Steve,
This is horrible news. My thoughts and prayers to the families back in the PI. I love that country as you well know, it makes my heart sad to know that a fisher has died just for some stinking fish. Mayhaps in your future trainings, stress that staying alive to fish another day is more important than cheap fish to the US.

 

[clarionreef]

Baby clown triggers in season suspend all the moral and ethical musings we find here in January.
When the babys are in...[ at the 100 foot and deeper zone] the collectors must bring them in order to sell the rest of their fish.
The buyers won't work with them if they don't have the clown triggers.
The 40 plus deaths we recorded were up to 1993. There have been plenty more since then.

The poor performance of the Aquarium reform groups in the past decade didn't train divers well and mostly didn't reach or train them at all.
Diving safety must be a priority in all collector trainings and yet it was just another loss of opportunity when the NGOS failed to convert cyanide fishers to nets or safe diving practices.
Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Sedgro, your points are too astute, too sharp. Can we put our blinders back on, please?

 

[clarionreef]

Thanks for the info Steve. I had naively assumed that all the deeper water stuff coming from Tonga and Vanuatu was a result of someone buying a couple of rebreathers or learning how to dive with mixed gasses. I never dreamed they would import laborers from another country to expoilt (and kill) them.

Sedgro,
We are all naive to begin with but how long we stay that way eventually is up to us, especially in the Age of Information that enables education on so many things at our fingertips.
Rebreathers, mixed gas diving, nitrox???
That would define divers as more important players.
Higher training makes them more valueable...raising the price of fish it is thought..
Buyers are generally reluctant to empower the people they want to exploit.
The general resistance to net training and all the education it entails has largely been seen as a bad thing by "reputable indutry professionals."
Changing the equation will upset the balance and threaten the status quo of 50 years of minimizing the fish collectors.... resulting in less cheap deepwater fish.
There is a window into the mindset that runs the trade. Not all, but most of it.
Steve

 

[Anonymous]

It is true what cortez says... If we were to work in the conditions that people in third world or developing countries work in there would be mass striking and riots... but its everyday life to these people. I come from Paraguay, S.A. and although they dont contribute to the U.S. with trade or industry they have the same conditions as the people who do make shirts that cost $1 that we pay $50 for. There are no child labor laws, no overtime, no health or dental and they make what we spend on a pop.... I know that we are probably preaching to the choir but if one more person can be educated it will be good. Some of the things you could do to find out about your fish is ask where they come from and follow the trail. Until you get to the source and how they are harvested.

 

[clarionreef]

Raul
Rarely do consumers want to raise their own prices to insure better quality or sustainability.
They assume this can all be done with stricter management and w/in a narrow definition of human rights.
How else can you explain the alliance between WWF and the Walmart nation?
How else do we confer sustainability and human rights on the worst offenders of both?
The aquarium trade is of course a part of this and therefore in a quandry...We want the good stuff done ...." right ...preferably....or wrong....if need be.
Either way we want it cuz wanting and coveting is what we do.

Its kind of an anthropological extention of berry gathering and hunting for protien. Its also a fobidden topic to suggest that we are a silly subculture that gets turned on by selective, arbitrary, fascile obssessions and living artifacts kept inside the walls of our own habitat .
[ Me as well. ]

In America we have the rights and options you spoke of.
But as you and I both know, in many places, its more like;
'The beatings will continue until morale improves."

Feeling empathy for others can give you a kind of 'anti-American...anti business' reputation in your own country.
It would bother me but I relize the ignorance that inspires it and must forgive them.
Steve