Mexico's Squid Sweatshops

Recently as I drove along  Coast Highway I  noticed a tremendous number of fishing boats just offshore, all the way down the coast.  At first I thought it was lobster season, but according to the lifeguards in Solana Beach, the fishermen are out fishing for squid.  I couldn't find the reason why late September is the time for all the squid to be out there and ready to catch, but it is.  Day, and night, the fishing boats are present.  The largest population of squid on the west coast is found from Alaska all the way to Baja, Mexico.  I know how hard American fishermen work, and I decided to check out the Mexican fishermen if their plight was as difficult.  It is, only much worse. 

I read about a small fishing village called Santa Rosalina, where much of the Baja squid fishing originates.  The boats on which they fish have no life vests, radios or emergency lights.  Every season, several fishermen die at sea, from accidents, drug overdoses, or illness.  The fishermen are so competitive that they won't tell each other where the best fishing is, or even help if a boat capsizes. 

The grotesque working conditions are only the beginning.  Many squid processing plants consist of Korean or Chinese owned processing plants.  These factories buy each day's catch from middlemen known as permissionarios, who have frozen the price the fishermen receive for their squid at a very low rate.  Most Mexican fisherman consider a $50 paycheck to be a good price for a ten-hour fishing trip. 

When you hear about Mexican sweatshops you typically think of garment factories or auto assembly plants.  These plants have received great scrutiny in recent years, and are better regulated.  Small rural villages like Santa Rosalina have become home to a new kind of sweatshop.  These squid sweatshops operate Wild West syle, far from the federal labor offices in Mexico City.  But it's not just the lack of local law enforcement that's to blame.  Globalization and United States' lack of regulation over seafood imports are also responsible for the exploitation here.

The workers in these processing plants face deplorable conditions.  Single moms bring small children to practically live there while the mothers work.  They sleep on dirty floors.  Many of the workers have drug problems.  The workers have made attempts to organize, but it hasn't happened yet.  This is what faces poor workers who are not allowed to organize (unionize). 

Another problem is that seafood is often shipped from port to port before it reaches the United States, and it can be relabled upon entry and exit, so it's difficulte to know where it originated.  A processing plant in China purcheses squid and other ratw materials from many sources around the world, mixing them together into imitation crab meat, fish stick, or dried squid snacks.  Country of original Labeling is required only on fresh seafood, not products like these.  I knew there was a reason I don't eat imitation crab or fish sticks.

There are some global watchdog organizations there are trying to educate the public and get countries to pass laws providing more transparency.  We read often about trying to get our government to tell us the full story as to where our food is coming from.  I was shocked when I learned that conditions were so bad in Mexican processing plants, and even more surprised when I heard that the seafood from Mexico might go to China or who knows where else, before coming to America.  How can we ever be sure what we're eating?  For now, I'll stick to fish caught in American waters and hope that the FDA is looking out for us.  Maybe we should just all go vegetarian.  That would actually solve a lot of problems, but that's an issue for another day.