The Catch
By Michael Field
On November 9, 2008, near Kiribati in the Pacific, a Korean ship came alongside Tai Ching 21. The Taiwan-flagged fishing boat was eerily silent. Three life rafts were missing, and all 29 of the Taiwanese officers and Chinese, Indonesian and Filipino crew.
A quest to discover the men’s identities led journalist Michael Field into a dark world of foreign-flagged vessels fishing the waters of New Zealand, other Pacific nations, and the Southern Ocean. He uncovered brutality, misery and death – and impending ecological disaster: the destruction of the last great southern schools of fish. With researchers from University of Auckland, he forced the New Zealand government to take action – but with huge money at stake the plunder and appalling working conditions continue. And more and more boats are now risking lives and maritime disaster heading south to catch toothfish, most destined for New York restaurants and Las Vegas casino hotels.
Ebook edition: Available from e-tailers worldwide, including (but not limited to):
Reviews, interviews, author events
Read Michael Field’s Sunday Star-Times piece about the anti slave fishing bill here.
Listen to an interview on 612 ABC Brisbane with Michael online here.
Michael Field had a great interview with Wallace Chapman on Sunday Morning. You can listen to the full interview here.
“Your book really opened my eyes on some of these types of boats. … [It] shocked me. Some of the practices that were going on – virtual slavery.”
WALLACE CHAPMAN, SUNDAY MORNING
“Veteran journalist Michael Field is among the few people who can truly say they’ve helped change the world we live in.”
ROSE CAWLY, STUFF (Full article here)
“This is a well-researched and comprehensive account… Michael Field pulls no punches in this book, which is investigative journalism at its best.”
VICTOR BILLOT, OTAGO DAILY TIMES
“Michael Field… believe[s] people should know what goes on under the surface and behind closed doors on matters of real public interest, and that journalists should lift the lid where they can.”
COLIN PEACOCK, NZ BOOKS
Published: August 2015
Category: Essays/Journalism, Politics/Issues
