Ancient disease kills Thai fishermen
Lack of fresh food led to horrific deaths from beriberi, a disease better known for striking sailors more than a century ago, as fleets sail farther to avoid rules
BANGKOK // The six dead men lay in red bags, lined up on a concrete dock. The first died almost three weeks before his ship reached Thailand; the last almost made it alive but died the day before the ship docked.
They were Thai and Cambodian fishermen who succumbed to beriberi, a disease better known for striking sailors more than a century ago.
But their deaths, according to a Greenpeace report released yesterday, are part of an all-too modern problem faced by Thai fishing fleets operating thousands of kilometres from home in unregulated waters to dodge government monitoring of illegal fishing and onboard human rights abuses. Thailand has responded to problems in the industry by laying up its overseas fleet and ordering tracking equipment installed on the vessels.
The two ships that were to carry the dead left Thailand in the first few months of last year, according to an earlier Thai government report. They sailed to the coast of Madagascar, where they stayed for months.
They transferred their catch to “reefers,” refrigerated cargo ships, to avoid government regulators while getting their fish to market.
Supply ships brought the fishermen fresh food once every couple of months – they did not visit often enough.
Thai government investigators found there was no fresh food, after searching ship the Somboon 19.
“The kitchen had eggs, vegetable oil, and white rice. No fresh vegetables or meat,” they said.
The ships ran out of fresh food weeks after each delivery, forcing the crew to subsist on fish and rice – a diet deficient in Vitamin B, the root cause of beriberi. Many began to fall ill. During hours of back-break- ing work, some of the fishermen began finding it hard to breathe. Their legs swelled and their bodies went limp.
Although one ship returned to Thailand as soon as a fisherman died, the second one dumped the body in the freezer of the cargo hold and kept fishing, only returning when the navy called them home, said Commander Piyanan Kaewmanee, head of a Thai navy department combating illegal fishing.
The vessels ended up so far from home after a coming under a fishing ban by Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
For decades, Thai vessels fished in their waters, splitting profits in exchange for fishing licences. But after the revelation last year that Thai fishing boats were enslaving migrants from Myanmar, Cambodia and other neighbouring countries, Indonesia shut off their waters to fishing vessels from foreign countries. Papua New Guinea followed soon after.
Deprived of their usual hunting ground, the Thai boats set sail for seas far from the eyes of governments. “Nobody really knows what happens on these vessels,” said Mark Dia, an oceans activist and manager at Greenpeace. The group said ships were tracked as they moved toward the Saya de Malha Bank, an ecologically rich breeding ground for whales claimed by Mauritius but effectively unregulated, according to experts.
Thai prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha created a command centre for combating illegal fishing last year and in December that year, the Thai navy sent a task force to inspect 74 Thai overseas fishing vessels to enforce new permit regulations.
A navy report recorded dozens of vessels that had violated labour permits and overstayed their licences, prompting them to recall their entire overseas fishing fleet back to Thailand. The Greenpeace report named some of the worst fishing boat operators.
After abuses were uncovered, the Thai navy laid up the overseas fleet and prosecuted some of the operators.
Seventy of the vessels are docked in a port an hour away from Bangkok and are being fitted with GPS tracking equipment. They will be allowed to sail again next year.
Cmdr Piyanan admitted that regulation would always be challenging. “Anyone that is greedy enough, they can come up with things to avoid detection to avoid control from the government,” he said.
‘ Nobody really knows what happens on these vessels Mark Dia oceans activist and manager at Greenpeace