Saving Seafood

Labor unions emerge as voice for migrant fishermen in Southeast Asia

April 21, 2020 — Despite legal and corporate barriers, trade unions are starting to give migrant seafood workers a greater voice in Thailand and across Southeast Asia – enabling them to combat the subpar working conditions that persist on fishing vessels and in seafood processing facilities.

Organizing hasn’t been easy, according to a new report published by the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF), an advocacy organization. The migrant workers that fill most of the low-wage, low-skill jobs in the Thai seafood industry are legally barred from forming labor unions in Thailand.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

New company offers social responsibility benchmarking for seafood industry

April 15, 2020 — Seafood companies looking to demonstrate their commitment to environmentally sustainable fishing can choose from an array of assessments, audits, and certifications. But when they decide to show their dedication to treating workers well, they’re left with few options.

Poor working conditions at sea are rampant, and numerous reports have emerged in recent years of labor abuse and human rights violations, spurring a reckoning within the industry.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Coast Guard breaks up Mexican poachers’ red snapper incursion off Texas

April 10, 2020 — Thirteen Mexican fishermen were detected poaching red snapper far north of the U.S. maritime boundary off south Texas Monday when the Coast Guard moved in to break up their longlining operations, Coast Guard officials said.

Three lanchas – small, slim-hulled outboard boats of 20 to 30 feet that can run at 30 knots – were corralled about 50 miles inside the boundary and detained by crews on a Coast Guard cutter, small boat and helicopters.

The haul brought in 12 miles of longline gear, other fishing equipment illegal under U.S. law, and 2,020 pounds of poached red snapper.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

FAO’s guidelines for human rights in fishing delayed after pushback

April 10, 2020 — Baseline international standards for human rights, labor conditions, and social responsibility in the seafood industry will have to wait.

Countries pushed back against draft guidance on social responsibility in fish value chains developed by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) when it was first officially presented in November in Vigo, Spain. As a result, FAO is spending the next year-plus creating a scoping paper that will more explicitly spell out what should be included in the guidance.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Evidence persists of IUU, forced labor in Taiwanese fleet, including on FCF-linked vessels

April 3, 2020 — Greenpeace East Asia is accusing Bumble Bee’s parent company, Taiwan-based Fong Chun Formosa (FCF), of forced labor and environmentally harmful practices aboard at least two vessels linked to the company.

FCF is among the top three tuna traders in the world, and acquired Bumble Bee in January after the American seafood company filed for bankruptcy. The two companies have a long history: Prior to the acquisition, FCF had been supplying Bumble Bee with 95 percent of its albacore and more than 70 percent of its light meat tuna, according to Greenpeace’s examination of court filings.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Evidence persists of IUU, forced labor in Taiwanese fleet, including on FCF-linked vessels

March 30, 2020 — Greenpeace East Asia is accusing Bumble Bee’s parent company, Taiwan-based Fong Chun Formosa (FCF), of forced labor and environmentally harmful practices aboard at least two vessels linked to the company.

FCF is among the top three tuna traders in the world, and acquired Bumble Bee in January after the American seafood company filed for bankruptcy. The two companies have a long history: Prior to the acquisition, FCF had been supplying Bumble Bee with 95 percent of its albacore and more than 70 percent of its light meat tuna, according to Greenpeace’s examination of court filings.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

IUU economic estimates climb as high as USD 50 billion in new study

March 20, 2020 — Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing has profound effects on the economies and pocketbooks of developing countries, removing billions of dollars worth of fish every year from the legal trading system.

Between 8 and 14 million metric tons of fish are caught illegally every year, according to a new study from the University of British Columbia (UBC). Those fish are worth an estimated USD 9 billion to USD 17 billion (EUR 8 billion to EUR 15 billion).

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ILO finds improvements in Thailand’s seafood sector

March 13, 2020 — A new report released in March by the United Nations’ International Labor Organization (ILO) has found improvements in working conditions in Thailand’s fishing and seafood processing sectors. However, there remain problems with forced labor in the industry, the organization noted.

Despite the finding, a group of human rights-focused NGOs are calling on the U.S. government to downgrade Thailand in its annual report on human trafficking, according to Reuters.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

FLORIDA: House passes shark fin ban — renamed after Kristin Jacobs — with carveout for domestic fishermen

March 10, 2020 — The House passed the Senate version of a bill (SB 680), which outlaws the import and export of fins to or from Florida.

However, one amendment was added, meaning the Senate will have to vote anew on the reconfigured bill.

Rep. Kristin Jacobs, in what may be some of her final remarks on the House floor, noted that a lot of traffic has moved through Miami due to that and other illicit trades.

“There’s no end to finding a black market for all kinds of things,” Jacobs noted, adding that shark carcasses have been used to traffic cocaine.

Shark finning is the process of catching a shark, removing its fins and discarding the shark. Shark finners usually drop the body back into the ocean, where it bleeds to death or drowns because it can no longer swim properly. The fins fetch a hefty price on the black market where they are most often sold to Asian countries.

Read the full story at Florida Politics

ILO Says Working Conditions Improve in Thai Seafood Sector

March 10, 2020 — A report issued Tuesday by the U.N.’s International Labor Organization credits Thailand with improving working conditions in the fishing and seafood processing industry, but says that serious abuses including forced labor remain.

The report is a follow-up to one published in 2018, and compares the workers situations from earlier surveys to one conducted last year.

Thailand’s seafood sector accounts for billions of dollars in export earnings annually and employ more than 350,000 workers.

However, the industry began facing the threat of trade sanctions from Western nations after media exposure in 2014 of poor working conditions and especially the exploitation of ‘fishing slaves’ — forced labor.

In response, Thailand’s government began instituting reform measures, most effectively by strengthening its legal, policy and regulatory framework, the report says.

But the measures have failed to substantially cut the use of forced labor, it says. Extrapolating from the 2019 survey of workers, it estimates that 14% of those engaged in fishing and 7% of those in seafood processing were subject to some form of forced labor.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New York Times