Eight of the biggest seafood companies in the world pledged to report and reduce illegal catches and root out endangered species from their supply chain, says Reuters. The firms also promised to end slave labor and reduce antibiotics in aquaculture.
The eight companies, which signed the joint statement at a meeting organized by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, included “the two largest by revenues, Maruha Nichiro and Nippon Suisan Kaisha; two of the largest tuna companies, Thai Union and Dongwon Industries; the two largest salmon farmers, Marine Harvest ASA and Cermaq; and the two largest aquafeed companies, Nutreco unit Skretting and Cargill Aqua Nutrition,” reports Reuters.
“The seafood industry cannot thrive on an unsustainable planet, and we will not have a thriving planet with an unsustainable seafood industry,” the companies said in the statement.
According to the SRC, “13 large international companies together account for 11 to 16 percent of the global catch, with a handful of them controlling up to 40 percent of some of the most valuable stocks.”