Responding to pressure from the environmental group Greenpeace, the world’s largest tuna supplier, Thai Union, has announced a series of initiatives designed to improve its fishing practices and protect workers from abuses. Thai Union owns the popular brands Chicken of the Sea and Sealect.
“Thai Union’s commitments include several technical approaches to reducing bycatch, the extension of a moratorium on practices that allow fishing vessels to stay at sea for extended periods of time—which facilitates illegal activity—the deployment of independent labor rights observers on vessels at sea, and the implementation of a comprehensive code of conduct for all vessels in its supply chain,” says GreenBiz.
About 90 percent of fishing stocks around the world are fully exploited or overfished, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. In addition, “the Nature Conservancy estimated that half of the global seafood catch is the result of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, which contributes to the rampant labor rights abuses—in some cases outright slavery—that pervade the industry,” says GreenBiz.
Greenpeace, which initially filed a petition against Thai Union in 2015 to change its practices, praised the company’s announcement but pointed out that one company can’t bring about global change. “Not only will the vessels catching the fish need to fully cooperate for these commitments to turn into real action and positive change, but all major buyers and sellers of tuna need to recognize that the status quo is no longer acceptable,” it said.