Aboard the docked Svetlana M, Filipino seafarer Norberto Cabrela gently swayed to the waves. And waited.
As days turned to weeks then into months, everything turned to waiting. Waiting for his next meal. Waiting for the next phone call from his wife. Waiting for his pay. Waiting for the tuna he had caught to fetch a higher price. Waiting to hear if he could go home.
The boat, no bigger than five parking spaces in length, began to feel like aprison.
After a disappointing start to the albacore tuna season last spring, Cabrela and 23 other Filipino fishermen across several boats had spent late September, all of October and most of November docked in the Westport Marina on the Washington coast.
Each year, crews unload more than 100 million pounds of seafood at the commercial fishing hub tucked inside a cove of Grays Harbor, making it one of the busiest landing ports in the country. But between fishing seasons, activity slows and hours may pass without a boat coming or going.
As the birth of his son drew near amid the lull in work, Cabrela asked to go home. He wanted to be there for his wife’s planned cesarean. He said tests showed the baby’s cord wrapped around its body. Though not unusual, it was still worth treating with caution.
Cabrela and the other fishermen did not have visas to enter the U.S., so they all depended on their employer, California-based McAdam’s Fish, to arrange travel home. They could not legally step off of their assigned boats, even onto the adjacent docks, without risking a massive fine.
Labor experts say working offshore can leave foreign fishermen, coming to work at a U.S. company for higher wages, isolated and uniquely vulnerable to the interests of their employers. Even while tied to the dock, they can remain adrift in a murky zone of jurisdiction without a clear understanding of who is responsible for monitoring their working conditions.