新西兰英语 594 Fishing Inquest

 　　This week a coroner’s court is trying to find out why a fishing boat sank and six fishermen drowned in August 2010. The ship, the Oyang 70, sank in New Zealand waters. It was a Korean ship, chartered¹ by a New Zealand fishing company. Most of the crew were Indonesian. The captain, who died, was Korean. Listen to August 18th 2010 to hear more about this.

　　The coroner has heard that there were a number of reasons for the tragedy but the main reason was that the fishing net had too many fish in it. It weighed about 120 tonnes which is three times the normal weight of a catch. When the net was brought onto the deck, a lot of water came too, flooding the ship. Maintenance² of the ship was also not good. There were not enough safety checks. There was no emergency practice for getting into life boats. There was no emergency lighting³ for the men to see the life boats. Communication was a problem because most of the men did not speak Korean.

　　There have been many other problems with foreign fishing boats chartered to New Zealand companies and the government is making changes. All boats will now have an observer to check there is no illegal fishing and to check on conditions for the crew. Some of the crew say that conditions on the boats are bad – poor food, cold temperatures, physical abuse, long hours of work and poor pay.

　　Listen to December 13th 2010 to hear about another fishing boat tragedy.

　　Vocabulary

　　?inquest – a court to find out why or how someone died

　　?coroner – the judge of this court

　　?chartered – the NZ company hires foreign boats to do the fishing; the New Zealand company sells the fish

　　?maintenance – keeping the boat in good condition; maintain (verb) the boat

　　?physical abuse – being hit

1 chartered   

a.特许的，持有特许证的

参考例句：

• the Institute of Chartered Accountants （英国皇家）特许会计师协会
• The government chartered the new airline. 政府给这家新航空公司颁发了许可证。

2 maintenance   

n.维修，保养，扶养费，维持，保持

参考例句：

• His small farm provides maintenance,but not much more.他的小农场能使他们维持生活，但仅此而已。
• He has to pay maintenance to his ex-wife.他必须给前妻赡养费。

3 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。