In the 1980s, when Anne Mosness was a fishing boat captain off the coast of Washington State, she kept hearing troubling stories from colleagues\u2014of workplace misogyny, such as when pin-up calendars of naked women were displayed on boats; sexual harassment; and worse at the hands of male coworkers and superiors at sea. One woman who later worked with Mosness said that while at sea for two months, she had been repeatedly sexually assaulted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen were new in the industry then,\u201d says Mosness. They faced a culture of intolerance and hostility that left them \u201cextremely isolated.\u201d<\/p>\n
For six years, Mosness and a group of fishers toiled to persuade the US government to protect seafaring women. They conducted interviews, wrote newsletters, met with professional seafaring organizations, and lobbied Congress. Finally, in 1989, a law was passed<\/a> that required captains of vessels in US waters\u2014anything from a small river barge to a fishing boat to a cargo container\u2014to report sexual assault complaints to the US Coast Guard, with a US $5,000 penalty for noncompliance.<\/p>\n Today, the military branch \u201cencourage[s] the reporting of all instances of sexual assault or sexual harassment to the authorities so perpetrators can be prosecuted,\u201d says a US Coast Guard representative in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n There\u2019s only one problem.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been completely unenforced,\u201d says Ryan Melogy, a lawyer and former officer in the US Navy Reserve. The result, he says, is a still-toxic workplace for mariners at sea.<\/p>\n Melogy, who witnessed a sexual assault on a ship in 2015 and only learned of the law in 2019, is trying to raise awareness about it through his organization, Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy. Melogy is gathering stories from survivors of shipboard harassment and assault and sharing them on his organization\u2019s social media<\/a>. He also routinely submits Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the coast guard to access sexual assault reports from shipping companies to better understand how the law is\u2014and is not\u2014being enforced.<\/p>\n For instance, the result of one recent FOIA request<\/a> shows that over the past 30 years no captain of a US maritime academy training vessel, which includes ships operated by the US Merchant Marine Academy, has reported a case of sexual assault\u2014which either means that in three decades these ships have been sexual assault\u2013free, or, more likely, that the captains are in violation of the law, says Melogy.<\/p>\n \u201cIf no one is getting punished, then it\u2019s lawlessness.\u00a0…\u00a0You\u2019re sailing out into a lawless void,\u201d says Melogy.<\/p>\n