美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Get Off The Boat' — Women In Commercial Fishing Industry Fight Sexual Harassment

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Many female fishermen say that sexual harassment¹ is part of the job. Women make up roughly 15% of Alaska's commercial fishing industry, and they say that being on a boat for weeks or months at a time makes harassment hard to escape. But now there's a push to make the seas safer. From member station KBBI in Homer, Alaska, Renee Gross reports. And a note - this story contains the description of an attempted sexual assault.

RENEE GROSS, BYLINE²: Robin³ McAllister is sitting on a couch in her living room in Homer when her younger friend, Jude Huerta, walks through the door.

ROBIN MCALLISTER: Hey, honey.

GROSS: Huerta's 19 years old and wants to commercial fish for the first time this year. McAllister fished years ago and, recently, the friends have been talking about safety.

JUDE HUERTA: It's really sad that that has to be said, but it's important to know.

MCALLISTER: It's better to say it ahead of time than regret it later.

GROSS: McAllister is speaking from experience. When she fished in the '70s and '80s, at times she was the only woman on the boat. Once, she says, she was stuck on a boat with a captain who was constantly drinking. She says he assaulted her in her room, and she had to fight him off.

MCALLISTER: I mean, physically⁴ grappling and trying to get through and get out and get away. Well, I wasn't raped⁵, but that was only because I got out.

GROSS: The next day, she hopped⁷ onto another boat to get away. Thirty years later, she now works as a therapist. Her clearest advice...

MCALLISTER: You can hop⁶ a tender when you're done delivering fish. If things have gotten bad, don't negotiate with them that you'll be dropped later. Get off the boat.

GROSS: The Alaska State Commission for Human Rights takes complaints about sexual harassment and discrimination but says it doesn't receive a larger number from the fishing industry specifically. The difference is that on a boat, you're stuck with your co-workers for long periods of time.

ELMA BURNHAM: My name's Elma Burnham, and I am founder⁸ of Strength of the Tides.

GROSS: Strength of the Tides is a grassroots movement asking fishermen boat captains and others to sign a pledge demanding zero tolerance⁹ for sexual harassment and assault. Burnham herself fishes commercially in Alaska, and she started the organization in 2017.

BURNHAM: So I first put the pledge online and sent it out to people I'd worked with in the past. And then it got picked up more quickly than I expected.

GROSS: Roughly, 300 people have signed it. She gets the word out by holding networking nights, hosting education events and attending conferences. Burnham publishes online the list of those who have signed it, and she hopes women will use the list to find jobs on boats that take harassment seriously.

BURNHAM: It's basically - another way to look at it is an anti-harassment policy for this group of people.

MALCOLM MILNE: The one thing I don't approve of is more paperwork necessarily. I have plenty to do as it is.

GROSS: Malcolm Milne owns a fishing boat and manages a crew of four. He's also president of the North Pacific Fisheries Association. He doesn't have a formal harassment policy because he says he's not that official about things. But he says he talks to his crew about the problem.

MILNE: People recognize that it does happen in circumstances, but in the smaller family boats that I am associated with, I think people are just - don't have any tolerance for it, so it's not really an issue I would say.

GROSS: Back in McAllister's house in Homer, she says more needs to be done to tackle the issue on both big and small boats.

MCALLISTER: The truth is I really like the Wild West of the ocean just the way it is and the fleets just the way they are. But people should be sexually safe.

GROSS: She says there needs to be just enough in place for a safety net. For NPR News, I'm Renee Gross in Homer, Alaska.

(SOUNDBITE OF VIKTOR KRAUSS AND MAEVE GILCHRIST'S "FARIKA")

1 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

4 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

5 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

6 hop   

n.单脚跳，跳跃；vi.单脚跳，跳跃；着手做某事；vt.跳跃，跃过

参考例句：

• The children had a competition to see who could hop the fastest.孩子们举行比赛，看谁单足跳跃最快。
• How long can you hop on your right foot?你用右脚能跳多远？

7 hopped   

跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花

参考例句：

• He hopped onto a car and wanted to drive to town. 他跳上汽车想开向市区。
• He hopped into a car and drove to town. 他跳进汽车，向市区开去。

8 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

9 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。