SUSTAINABILITY INCUBATOR PRESS RELEASE, September 12, 2024.
New science finds tuna ecolabeling is causing fishers more harm than good.
Contact Katrina Nakamura, PhD at Katrina@Sustainability-Incubator.com
New research published by Nature in its journal Ocean Sustainability reveals that tuna ecolabeling is causing fishers more harm than good. The multi-year research looked into a claim by the world’s largest ecolabel, the Marine Stewardship Council, that its program keeps forced labour out while also encompassing 59% of the world’s tuna. It is a remarkable claim made on behalf of hundreds of thousands of anonymous fishers working in remote conditions on the High Seas—by a promotional ecolabel that is earning licensing fees from their employers.
The 3327 tuna vessels listed in the MSC program were collected into a database (accompanying the article) and interrogated for proof of keeping forced labour out. Instead, the data revealed that a majority of tuna vessel owners (1970 fishing employers) are participating anonymously, meaning their involvement in forced labour — or illegal fishing or anything else, positive or negative — is entirely unknown. The data also demonstrated that vessel conditions are untraceable for 74% of the tuna catches reported by certifiers.
The research found that a single source of information is behind the MSC’s assurance of keeping forced labour out: the ecolabeling client. Dozens of tuna vessels currently in the program have been reported for forced labour by the fishers working on them and several are under investigation. This is reality, when the Marine Stewardship says that it is keeping forced labour out.