"When we looked at how the populations of major species have been doing in the past 60 years, we discovered that, at present, most of their biomasses are well below the level that can produce optimal catches."You'd be hard-pressed to find a corner of society or business sector that wasn't impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the coronavirus hit the seafood industry particularly hard—and exacerbated pre-existing issues to boot.
"The U.S. seafood industry was hit pretty hard, especially workers in high-density workplaces like seafood processing plants where social distancing was difficult," says study author, assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of New Hampshire."Even though COVID-19 precautions were set in place reducing the number of workers on processing lines it meant longer shifts and increased exposure overall.
Maryland is world renown for its crabs, but the vast majority of workers at local crab processing plants are immigrant women living in the U.S. on H-2B guest worker visas. That means if they lose their job they must leave their home. Consequently, workers are hesitant to speak out about discrimination, long hours, and wage abuse. While this has been a problem for quite some time, COVID-19 intensified the situation.