AP – Five fishermen who spent 55 days adrift at sea arrived Saturday at a port in the Galapagos Islands after being rescued by a tuna boat, the Ecuadorian navy said on X.
The three Peruvians and two Colombians had been missing since mid-March and were found on May 7 by an Ecuadorian boat called Aldo.
The fishermen had reported damage to the boat’s alternator two days after setting sail from Pucusana Bay, to the south of Peru’s capital Lima, the navy said in a separate post on Friday.
The failure caused communication and navigation tools to malfunction, Ecuadorian navy Frigate Capt. Maria Fares told The Associated Press, adding that they had no power on the boat …
More Than 100,000 Fishing-Related Deaths Occur Each Year, Study Finds
IUU fishing among the drivers of alarming death rate and extensive injuries among fishers
Issue Brief, November 3, 2022
PEW TRUST – Fishing has long been known as one of the world’s most dangerous professions, but a new study by the FISH Safety Foundation, commissioned by The Pew Charitable Trusts, suggests that the problem far exceeds previous estimates.
According to this research, more than 100,000 fishing-related deaths occur each year—three to four times previous estimates.1 Serious injuries and abuses, including child labor and decompression sickness—for example, from workers being forced to make repeated deep dives to harvest lobster—are also well-documented across the sector.
Further, while fishing can be inherently risky, the study draws attention to the harsh reality that many of these deaths were, and are, avoidable. Incredibly, few were even officially recorded.
Insufficient and unenforced safety regulations are a key challenge, but the study also points to a convergence of other major factors that leads individuals to risk their lives and die on the water.
These factors include scarcity of fish due to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, overfishing, and climate change, and, for many fishers, the added desperation caused by poverty and food insecurity challenges driving them into IUU fishing practices.
The study shows that these deaths and injuries disproportionately victimize impoverished people, including children, in low-income countries, which is a major reason they are so seldom noted.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), more than 3 billion people rely on fish and other marine species as a significant source of protein, and experts expect that number to increase.2
As the demand for seafood increases worldwide, fishing could grow ever more dangerous—unless the international community demands and ensures safer practices and accountability among fisheries managers … READ MORE.
