[Part 1] Why are human rights violations occurring in the context of tuna fishing? The black boxing of the supply chain (from the example of Korean fishing boats)

In December 2023, the international human rights NGO Human Rights Now and APIL (Advocates for Public Interest Law) released the investigative report "BLACK BOX: Where does the tuna sashimi on our dinner tables come from?" In this and the following two articles, Kana Kawasaki, a staff member of Human Rights Now's Business and Human Rights Project, will contribute to the project on human rights in the opaque tuna supply chain from Korean long-distance fishing boats to the Japanese market.

Serious human rights violations hidden in the sashimi tuna supply chain

"As soon as we got on board, work started. We worked until 9pm, with no breaks, no holidays, no overtime pay... If anyone got tired and leaned on the wall for a second, the captain would hit them over the head."

"I was given a two-year contract, but I was forced to work longer than that. I stayed on the ship for more than two years without ever going into port."

Both of these testimonies are from Indonesian workers who worked on the South Korean tuna longline vessel D from 2019 to 2021.

How would we feel, think, and act if the sashimi tuna we eat was the result of someone's human rights violations?

Fishing is a typical industry classified by the International Labor Organization (ILO) as being dirty, dangerous, and difficult. Deep-sea fishing, in particular, is considered to be at extremely high risk of IUU fishing and forced labor. Not only is it physically isolated far from land, but it also crosses the jurisdictions of multiple countries in the high seas and exclusive economic zones, making it extremely difficult to regulate and monitor.

Japan consumes 8% of the world's bluefin tuna catch, while 4% of Korea's sashimi tuna goes to Japan

Only a handful of countries in the world are engaged in deep-sea fishing. Korea's deep-sea fishing industry is the fourth largest in the world, and it is mainly conducted in the South Pacific Ocean. More than half of the fishing boats used in Korea's deep-sea fishing industry are tuna longline fishing boats, which catch tuna by lowering fishing hooks attached to long fishing lines onto the water surface (see Figure 4).

Longliners mainly catch yellowfin, bigeye and bluefin tuna, which are mainly supplied to the market as "sashimi tuna". Tuna is the largest catch and export in Korean deep-sea fishing, with four large Korean companies owning 4% of the Korean tuna longline fleet, most of which is exported to Japan, especially high-grade tuna for sashimi.

Japan has been one of the top five seafood consumers in the world since 1961, and consumes more than 5% of the world's catch of bluefin tuna, which is consumed in Japan as sushi and sashimi. According to the latest data, 80% of sashimi-grade tuna caught by Korean fishing boats is exported to Japan, and 41% of the total value of sashimi-grade tuna exports is generated from the Japanese market. In addition, Japan's reliance on imported seafood has been steadily increasing due to a decline in the labor force and a decrease in the number of workers on fishing boats due to young workers leaving the fishing industry.

Causes of human rights violations

As mentioned earlier, there are human rights risks in deep-sea fishing, which is isolated at sea, but there are other factors that increase human rights risks in the tuna supply chain from Korean fishing boats to the Japanese market.

● Vulnerability of migrant workers

It is very important to note that about 80% of workers on Korean deep-sea fishing vessels are migrant workers who suffer from poverty, lack of education, and unemployment in their home countries. Migrants, who are already in a vulnerable position due to poverty in their countries of origin, have no choice but to accept unreasonable working conditions and are exploited in harsh working conditions that amount to forced labor and human trafficking. During the migration process, brokers collect various training fees and transaction fees in the name of finding jobs, as well as severance pay that acts as a constraint to prevent them from leaving their jobs during the contract period. Since there are no regulations on working hours on deep-sea fishing vessels, they are exploited by working long hours, often more than 1 hours a day, at discriminatory minimum wages that are much lower than those of Korean fishermen. They are physically isolated on the high seas, where it is very difficult to ask for help, and are frequently exposed to dangerous living and working conditions, including violence.

● Conventionalization and lack of transparency in maritime transshipment

Transshipment at sea not only encourages fishing boats to remain at sea for long periods of time, but also increases the risk of human rights violations and illegal fishing, as catches from different boats are mixed on the transport vessel, leading to under-reporting or false reporting of catch volumes. To address these issues, the Regional Fisheries Management Organization for Tuna, of which South Korea is a member, prohibits transshipment at sea in principle and requires transshipment at port, but transshipment at sea is the most acceptable method for tuna longline fishing boats. In particular, for sashimi-grade tuna, for which freshness is important, it is common for the tuna to be transshipped to a transport vessel without being brought to a South Korean port and then exported to Japan as is.
Regional fisheries management organizations are supposed to collect and manage information on transshipment, but the information they disclose is itself uncertain, and the information they disclose is limited and extremely insufficient.

The South Korean government has also refused civil society requests for disclosure of relevant information it has submitted to regional fisheries management organizations, and when sashimi-grade tuna is exported directly from the high seas, there is no port control or inspection, and it is only declared to the Seoul customs bureau once the export has been confirmed, making it difficult to verify.

● The complexity and opacity of Japan's supply chain

The supply chain for tuna is becoming more and more opaque and complex, not only before it reaches the Japanese market, but also after it. Trading companies play an increasingly important role in the import and distribution of tuna in Japan, but they process, transport, and distribute tuna using their own transport ships and processing facilities both domestic and overseas, and do not disclose the information publicly on the grounds of "trade secrets." As a result, access to related information is restricted, making it difficult to distinguish between tuna caught in an environment that ensures occupational safety and health and tuna caught in an environment with high labor risks.

In Japan, under the Act on the Implementation of Conservation and Management Measures by Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, tuna importers are required to submit certificates guaranteeing that IUU fishing is not taking place during the catch. However, this guarantee does not cover issues related to human rights violations such as forced labor and human trafficking, resulting in a situation where products linked to human rights violations are distributed on the market.

Research report "BLACK BOX: Where does the tuna sashimi on our dinner tables come from?"Download here (Japanese/English/Korean）

>>>Read the second part

Written by Kana Kawasaki, Human Rights Now Business and Human Rights Project Staff