Correspondence
Email sent to the contact address for Zhejiang Hai Rong Oceanic Fisheries Co. Ltd.
The email said: "My name is Ian Urbina. I am the director of The Outlaw Ocean Project, a journalism organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States, and I'm working on a magazine story about labor issues and other crimes at sea on board vessels of the Chinese fishing fleet. We are reaching out to request a comment to our statements below from both the captain of the Han Rong 368 and your company, as the owner of the Han Rong 368, which we mention in the story. Our reporting has shown the following: In a video from 2020, two Filipino crew members said that they were sick but were being prevented from leaving their ship. “Please rescue us,” one pleaded. “We are already sick here. The captain won’t send us to the hospital.” Three of the deckhands died that summer; at least one of their bodies was thrown overboard. We need an official response in writing from the captain of the Han Rong 368 and your company on the above statements by the end of the business day on Friday, September 22."