The global tuna industry has been long tainted by human rights abuses on the high seas, where as many as 128,000 fishers are ensnared in forced labor aboard vessels. Economic giants like the EU, the US, Australia, and Japan are leading consumers of the US$42 billion industry. But with complex and opaque supply chains in places hard to get to, modern slavery is rife. The Global Tuna Alliance’s (GTA) new campaign, Lives On The Line: Protect Fishers, urges the development of crew welfare standards to address documented human rights abuses in Indian Ocean tuna fisheries, where a larger chunk of catches come from areas beyond national jurisdiction compared to the Pacific region. Over 90% of tuna sold in the EU comes from the Indian Ocean, according to the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC).
