The occupational problems of vessel crew fish workers, more particularly that of migrant vessel crew fish workers, had burst out into the open during the Covid-19 pandemic induced lock-down. Stranded at the fishing harbours without proper food and shelter, without wage, exposed to infection and unable to return home, these wretched fish workers had to even come out on the streets to demand their right to decent shelter and adequate food or to get passage to home. Many of them fell ill, a few of them even died at the harbours. The government and the boat owners exhibited abject cynicism to the miserable condition of the migrant fish workers – – The owners stopped payment during the lock-down in spite of the advisory of the Ministry of Labour Welfare to continue with workers’ payments; – The owners and the Government took almost no initiative to provide them with proper shelter, food and medical facilities in spite of the Honourable Supreme Court’s directions in the matter; – More often than not the migrant fish workers were made to pay hefty sums as the cost of their travel to return home. More than three hundred thousand migrant fish workers are employed as vessel crew fish workers on the trawlers and mechanised fishing boats at different harbours of the West and East Coasts of the country. There are no proper agreements, irregularities in working conditions including payment, no proper or adequate life and accident insurance cover, no medical facilities, no travelling allowance for going to the workplace and returning home. NPSSFW had to move the Human Rights Commission to bring justice to the migrant fish workers stranded at Verabal, Gujarat. NPSSFW had launched a successful campaign in collaboration with many friends and concerned people to make proper arrangements for the return of migrant fish workers from Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra. Particularly at Kollam of Kerala the blood of agitating migrant fish workers was spilt by police lathi charge. It may be mentioned that though most of the vessel crew fish workers are migrant workers, many local workers also work on the larger fishing vessels. They also face similar difficulties at work. It may also be mentioned here that the Government of India, though a signatory to the ‘ILO Convention 188 on Work in Fishing’ of 2007, is yet to ratify the Convention and initiate necessary statutory or executive steps presumably for the pressure of mechanised fishing boat owners’ lobby on the Government. NPSSFW has been demanding implementation of ‘ILO Convention 188 on Work in Fishing’ and has been assisting the Vessel Crew Fish Workers in building up their collectives. The Democratic Traditional Fishers Workers Forum of Andhra Pradesh (DTFWF), an NPSSFW affiliate, has been instrumental in developing migrant fish workers’ collectives in Andhra Pradesh. The migrant workers of Andhra Pradesh, for the first time, came together to consider the problems they face at their workplaces and decided on a charter of demand which they, with the help of NPSSFW and activist lawyers, developed into a model draft agreement (copy enclosed) to be signed by the boat owner and the vessel crew fish worker. This was almost a bolt from the blue to the mechanised fishing boat owners. They did never think that their stranglehold over the fish workers would encounter such a challenge. Boat owners and leaders of boat owner associations (some of whom are in different fish workers’ organisations as well) rushed from Gujarat and Maharashtra to Andhra Pradesh to persuade the fish workers to go back and start fishing. The fish workers presented the boat owners with the draft model agreement and asked them to agree to it. Some of the boat owners were willing, others dissuaded them. They approached the Fisheries Minister of Andhra Pradesh. But the Hon’ble Minister said that the workers’ demands were just and small, the boat owners should agree to it. The boat owners then returned to their places with the comment that they will discuss the demands with their colleagues and then get back. Only the future knows what is in store for the vessel crew fish workers’ movement, but one thing is certain – the situation to exploit vessel crew fish workers will never be the same.