I became aware that many Chief Engineer jobs are available that pay better, even pay better per year considering that FCA will employ me continuously for so long as I'm willing to work.

Perhaps owing to the effect of the Tsunami on the Japanese management (I've been told that Anyo in Japan lost all their fishing boats and two shipyards), they wouldn't stop fishing long enough for me to be able to do sufficient (in my opinion, at least) preventative maintenance. I was barely keeping up with rectifying the poor condition in which I found the vessel. At the time I left it, I did not yet consider it to be unsafe, but I could forsee a conflict coming where I would either have to be the employee who told the Coast Guard that his employer's boat was unsafe, or be the engineer who didn't notify the Coast Guard in that situation. I didn't want to be either, so it seemed best to withdraw in advance.

Several aspects of working at FCA just grate on me. All of these I attribute to the owner preferring the opinions of the Japanese employees better than anyone else's, and their opinions being colored in large part by (what I perceive to be) Japanese racism and the corruption of the absolute power she attempts to afford them. American employees in every position who are not genetically Japanese are paid at a lower rate than the rest of the industry pays. People who get fired by American captains and should stay fired are brought back. Japanese employees frequently disregard American environmental and safety regulations in many small ways, sometimes at the expense of their own lives. If the rumor is true that the Visa's of the Japanese employees don't permit them to work with their hands, they disrgard that, too. They're hard workers with lots of skill & experience. Much less regard is given to product quality than I've encountered anywhere else, as payment to the Japanese and the case rate bonus to the Americans are solely based on the number of pounds produced (as opposed to the adjusted gross (selling price of the product minus fuel, food & insurance)) and I've seen no one employed on board the vessel check or enforce quality control in any manner that might hinder the rate of production. Watching what gets done to the resource makes me feel bad.