But I was also coming to understand that there was a larger role that manning agencies play in the global fishing industry. These firms were not just there to provide a buffer of responsibility and culpability between the crew and their employers. Their purpose was also to help bolster a certain illusion about globalization. The manning agencies—especially the shady ones prone to undercutting wages and tricking workers—provide the efficiencies that fishing companies need to hold up a fantasy that consumers around the world desperately want to believe.
