Fishy Work
A podcast about marine ecologies and labouring at sea hosted by Ian M. Cook and Alin Kadfak. Join us as we cast off into a sea of trash fish, worker precarity, racism, and labour campaigns to name but a few of the topics we’ll find stranded, floating, and calling out to have a podcast made about them. https://www.justseafood.org/podcast
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Episodes
6 days ago
6 days ago
Welcome to the first ever episode of Fishy Work, my name is Ian. Join me this season as we cast off into a sea of trash fish, worker precarity, racism, and labour campaigns to name but a few of the topics we'll find stranded and floating, calling out to have a podcast made about them.
In this episode we’re talking with Melissa Marschke and Peter Vandergeest about what structures working conditions at sea, why it can be so bad, yet why fishing is still meaningful for many fisher folk, how researchers go about researching labour at sea, and what organisations, campaigners and unions are doing to help improve working conditions.
6 days ago
6 days ago
A podcast about marine ecologies and labouring at sea hosted by Ian M. Cook and Alin Kadfak. Join us as we cast off into a sea of trash fish, worker precarity, racism, and labour campaigns to name but a few of the topics we’ll find stranded, floating, and calling out to have a podcast made about them. Expect a new episode on the third Monday of every month!
What's the show about?
Welcome to Fishy Work, my name is Ian. Join me this season as we cast off into a sea of trash fish, worker precarity, racism, and labour campaigns to name but a few of the topics we'll find stranded and floating, calling out to have a podcast made about them.
You may ask, why are they calling out to have podcasts made about them, what's so interesting about labour at sea?
Well, because, it turns out, many of us - including me - don’t know that much about the work, or the workers who catch the fish that most of us eat.
Sure, you might have a vague sense that there is overfishing, as it pops up in the news with semi regularity.
And maybe you have romantic ideas about gruff men with impressive beards, weathered hands and chunky jumpers - who are lashed by rain for weeks at sea before returning to their homely wives at shore or - if you excuse me as I adjust my western centric point of view for a moment - you might have romantic images of gangs of men with wide shorts and wider smiles casting nets across south East Asia.
Or, maybe, it might even be the case that you know there's something fishy going on. You might have vague memories of media reports about abuse in the industry, even forced labour, that you try not to think about so much as you bite into your tuna sandwiches.
But, but, but there's lots going on beyond romance, scandals, and vague guilt
In this podcast we want to take you a little deeper and speak to people who have cast a critical analytical eye over ecologies, labour and fish governance.
We’re not looking to be sensationalist - though many of the stories you hear are sensational
Nor do we want to make you feel bad about whatever you put into your mouth, what you do at dinner time is your business
Rather I want to learn about fish and work through a series of discussions with researchers who have dedicated a good deal of their lives making sense of it all, and then share these discussion with you.