Mistakes like this rarely happen on land. The 10-minute slow-motion killing spree captured on a cellphone camera shows a group of unarmed people at sea, being shot in the water, shot and killed one by one, after which the perpetrators take celebratory selfies. The only thing more surprising than the cartoons was the lack of government action that followed.
The case highlights the difficulty of prosecuting crimes on the high seas and why violence at sea often goes unpunished. There were at least four ships at the scene that day, but there is no law requiring multiple witnesses to testify about the massacre – and none did. Authorities only learned of the killing when the video surfaced on a cellphone left behind in a taxi in Fiji in 2014.
It is still unclear who the victims were and why they were shot. An unknown number of similar murders occur every year – the deckhands on the ship where the video was shot later said they saw a similar murder last week.
The number of brutal killings – and deaths at sea in general – is much harder to see. The death toll is around 32,000 per year, making commercial fishing one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. The new estimate is more than 100,000 deaths per year – more than 300 per day – according to research conducted by the FISH Safety Foundation and supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
“The reasons for this high mortality are the lack of adequate safety regulations and coordinated measures to promote safety at sea in the fishing community,” a September report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said. But the United Nations, which investigates those who kill people in the line of duty, does not indicate how many of these deaths are the result of avoidable accidents, neglect or violence.
Abuses on remote cruise ships – and the coordination of forced labor on these ships – have been an open mystery for some time. A report released in May by the University of Nottingham’s Rights Lab showed, for example, that migrant workers on British ships are overworked and underpaid while more than one in three workers said they had been abused.
In 2020, a team of researchers used satellite data tracking of nearly 16,000 fishing vessels to estimate that more than 100,000 people – a quarter of those on board – were at high risk of exploitation.
The Environmental Justice Foundation interviewed 116 Indonesians who worked on fishing boats from China, home to the world’s largest deep-sea fishing fleet. The organization found that more than half of the people had been abused or harassed.
Addressing such violence and other cruel conditions in commercial fishing is difficult because little data is collected or made available to the public. That lack of research is the biggest obstacle in managing the industry.
The case of a murder caught on a cell phone was not unusual because the perpetrator and the ship were known. Trygg Mat Tracking, a Norwegian investigative company that focuses on maritime crime, confirmed that the vessel is the Taiwanese-flagged Ping Shin 101 by comparing videos and photos on the maritime website. Former deckhands on the Ping Shin were found through Facebook posts and other social media sites where they discussed their time on board. Interviews with these former deckhands, some of whom said they witnessed the murders captured in the video, revealed the name of the captain and details of the murders.
Taiwanese authorities, who released the names of the men and ships in 2015 and 2016, said the victims appeared to be part of a failed plot. But maritime security researchers said that claims of piracy have been used to justify violence in a number of cases, real or otherwise. They said that the victims may have been ship’s crew who attacked terrorists, thieves who were caught stealing or even fishermen who competed with them.
After several years of public and media pressure, the Taiwanese government issued an arrest warrant for Wang Feng Yu, the captain of Ping Shin 101, who ordered his execution. In 2021, he was charged and sentenced to 26 years in prison, although the court reduced it to 13 years in June this year.
Such killings will continue to go unchecked and impunity without proper enforcement of coastal violence, transparency from flag agencies and fishing companies, and increased efforts by governments to bring perpetrators to justice. And this is important because what happens at sea affects everyone. According to some estimates, about 90 percent of the world’s trade is carried out by sea and seafood is the main source of protein in the world.
So what can we do? Advocates, law enforcement officers and investigators have suggested four options.
First, human rights researchers say that ship owners and crews should be legally obliged to report crimes at sea. What follows should not be kept secret by insurance companies or ship flag registries, but made available to the public.
Second, records must be controlled. Ships obey the laws of the countries whose flags they fly. Benevolent flags often hide illegal activities, including violence or among workers. Seafood companies must ensure that the fishing vessels they sell to fly only the correct and transparent flags.
Then, the transshipment should be stopped. Forced labor and violent crime are common among long-term fishing fleets at sea, which are supported by transshipment, where cargo ships carry fish back to shore so the fishing boats can continue operating. Forcing ships to return to land as soon as possible helps to reduce the number of people forced or sold, and helps companies and governments to see if there is violence or labor problems.
Finally, it is important to monitor labor unions. Seafood buyers and fishing companies need to improve their supply chain by asking organizations that hire, pay and transport workers to create digital contracts that show wages and stop people from evading schemes such as debt, recruitment fees or confiscation of passports.
There are reasons to be optimistic. Satellites make it hard for ships to go dark and hide their mistakes. Mobile phones make it easier for staff to document violence. The proliferation of photojournalism has raised public awareness of human rights and human rights abuses in offshore areas. Now, it’s really up to companies and governments to do their part.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect Al Jazeera’s influence.
