• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.1651-1661
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to draw up a plan for improving working conditions of distant water fishing vessel crew in order to revitalize the declining distant water fishing industry. Land-based employment has increased as the result of industrialization, which in turn created shortage in marine crew supply for distant water fishing vessels. Pressure on increasing wages for sea farers is put on the industry for this reason, making the labour market in the distant water fishing industry tougher and tighter. Multiple issues have yet to be addressed for distant water fishing vessel crew. They suffer from excessive work compared to other industries. Crew management is another issue, as sea farers face poor labour conditions, working on board vessels in a collective way where no autonomous actions are allowed. Other issues include unqualified crew supply, increasing ratio of labour costs for crew to sales, and intensified implications of labour unions, which are as well making crew supply difficult as a whole. To this end, more well-qualified workers should take part in production operations in the distant water fishery. Both wage increase and working condition improvement should be achieved in order to strengthen motivation towards qualified sea farers. Sustainable crew supply can be achieved when working environments, gender-based working conditions, welfare are prioritized and improved as a whole.