The videos contain a representative sample of stories told to a documentation team over the course of several weeks. Other fishermen at the Fijian port were not willing to speak on camera for fear of repercussions.
In one of the testimonial videos, an Indonesian fisherman that recently worked on a tuna longliner vessel in the Pacific said, “Working on that boat was terrible. If we were just a little wrong or a little late, they would hit us. They would beat everyone. They did not feed us regularly.”
Just this week, The New York Times released a detailed investigative story on slavery at sea and human rights abuses in the fishing industry. In March, the Associated Press also released an investigation into the seafood industry. Both investigations revealed labor abuses in the supply chain of Thai Union, the world’s largest producer of canned tuna, which owns Chicken of the Sea and is set to purchase Bumble Bee. While the investigations looked into other sectors of the company’s seafood business, it is clear that Thai Union has a serious labor problem that it is not adequately addressing.
Also this week, the United States released its annual Trafficking in Persons report, which maintained Thailand at a Tier 3 ranking—the worst possible score. Thai Union is the largest canned- and frozen-seafood producer in the country.
“The stories of abuse and slavery at sea are rampant throughout the tuna industry. A shocking number of tuna fishermen we have spoken to in ports across Asia and the Pacific have been victims of labor or human rights abuse,” said Greenpeace Oceans Campaign Director John Hocevar. “Major brands are hiding behind a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy that avoids addressing how their fish are caught and by whom. Supply chains are so murky it’s next to impossible for them to guarantee consumers’ canned tuna is not caught by enslaved fishermen.”
To ensure the safety of the fishermen speaking out about their experiences, Greenpeace has masked their faces as needed. All of the individuals featured in the videos have worked or continue to work on tuna longliners fishing in the Pacific.
Three of the videos feature current of recent tuna fishermen from Indonesia, whose identities have been masked for their protection. The others feature an unmasked fishermen from Fiji, who details the tuna vessel conditions he experienced 10 years ago. He gave Greenpeace permission to reveal his identity. The information unveiled in the videos spans a period of 10 years, illustrating that these problems have existed within the tuna industry for many years without being adequately addressed.
Some of the key solutions to human rights abuses at sea, including banning transshipments at sea and requiring observer coverage on tuna longline vessels, would also help address sustainability concerns for the fishing industry. Labor abuse at sea often goes hand in hand with illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing. The same vessel operators who have little regard for labor laws often have little regard for the environment and fisheries management regulations. These ships’ fishing methods deplete global tuna stocks and kill large numbers of sharks, rays and sea turtles in the process.
In another testimonial, a Fijian tuna fisherman recalled, “When sick, you’ll die, you’ll be put into plastic. You’ll be stuck with the frozen fish. If you have a fight in the ship, or you’re having problems with somebody, you’ll be pushed off so you go missing.”
Earlier this year, Greenpeace ranked U.S. canned tuna brands on both sustainability and human rights issues. Eighty percent of the US canned tuna market received failing scores, including Bumble Bee, Chicken of the Sea, and Starkist. These three brands source the majority of canned tuna tainting the retailer sector, as shown in Greenpeace’s Carting Away the Oceans report released this earlier this month. The report found that all 25 supermarkets evaluated must address human rights abuses, including those found within the tuna industry.
“It’s clear that the tuna industry has a serious human rights problem that they want to ignore,” said Hocevar. “These fishermen and American consumers deserve better. Major tuna brands need to change the way their industry is operating for the sake of the workers supplying their fish, as well as the health of our oceans.”
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For more information contact Myriam Fallon, 708.546.9001, [email protected]
To download the video testimonials, click here.
For b-roll footage of tuna fishing on the high seas, click here.
