Shocking new Greenpeace East Asia report uses tuna cans to uncover suspected illegal fishing and human rights abuses in Bumble Bee’s supply chain.
Greenpeace East Asia (GP EA) just released a new investigative report using tuna can data to find Bumble Bee and its Taiwanese owner — tuna trader FCF — sourced tuna from vessels suspected of illegal fishing and human rights abuses.1
Add your name: Tell Bumble Bee Tuna to protect workers in its supply chain and safeguard our oceans!
We know global seafood supply chains are notoriously opaque… So how did GPEA unearth these suspected abuses? The answer: Bumble Bee’s own tuna cans.
GPEA and Greenpeace USA both used Bumble Bee Tuna’s very own monitoring tool called “Trace My Catch” (TMC)2 to uncover these suspected abuses — by
entering the codes of individual Bumble Bee branded tuna cans being sold in the U.S. to find the fishing vessel that supplied the tuna. This allowed GPEA to crosscheck data with the Taiwan Fishery Agency and Global Fishing Watch. Their research revealed that in several cases the company sourced tuna from vessels suspected of human rights abuses at sea and/or illegal fishing.
In fact, one of the Bumble Bee Tuna cans in my very own grocery store was sourced from a fishing vessel that was confirmed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to have forced labor. This is not a coincidence! How routinely must Bumble Bee be sourcing tuna from suspected abusive shipping vessels for a Greenpeace USA Oceans Campaigner to find it just miles from their home???
Beyond the findings on Bumble Bee’s supplier, these are some of the most critical takeaways on human rights abuses from the report:
Over 10% of the 119 Taiwanese-flagged/owned vessels that were investigated in this report and supplied Bumble Bee had violated Taiwanese fishery regulations and were on the TFA’s illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) list.
Indicators of forced labor were identified in the reports of fishers that worked aboard six of the vessels that supplied Bumble Bee and FCF.
- Catch from Taiwanese-owned vessel Da Wang3 — whose crew were indicted for their involvement in forced labor and human trafficking — has been used to supply Bumble Bee. This raises concerns that seafood tainted with forced labor has already been sold in the U.S. market. In addition, one migrant fisher died4 whilst working on Da Wang after an accident occurred.
The United States is one of the world’s largest consumers of seafood, and the largest market for canned tuna. This report confirms that we have to act!
In the wake of the Biden Administration signing a National Security Memorandum to address illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and related harmful fishing practices, these findings are more critical now than ever to wake our government up on cracking down on major tuna brands, like Bumble Bee Tuna, to do more to stop suspected illegal commercial fishing and to protect workers in its supply chain.
Tell Bumble Bee Tuna to shut down forced labor and environmental abuses in its supply chain!
For the oceans,
Mallika Talwar
Senior Oceans Campaigner, Greenpeace USA
P.S. Have you read Greenpeace East Asia’s new investigative report uncovering suspected illegal fishing and human rights abuses in Bumble Bee’s supplier and parent company’s fishing vessels? Check it out NOW!
[1] greenpeace.org/usa/reports/gpea-report-fake-my-catch/
[2] bumblebee.com/tracemycatch/
[3] greenpeace.org/international/press-release/53401/nine-indicted-abusing-crew-taiwan-fishing-vessel-dawang/
[4] focustaiwan.tw/society/202204200024
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