Tell NOAA: End Illegal Fishing and Forced Labor

Not only does illegal fishing destroy our oceans and deplete fisheries, but it often relies on forced labor and leads to rampant human rights abuses. The United States is one of the world’s largest consumers of illegally fished seafood, and our government has a responsibility to help end labor abuse in the seafood industry.

Tell NOAA Fisheries to adopt effective standards for seafood traceability to intercept the flow of illegal seafood into the U.S. and help consumers feel confident the seafood they buy is legally caught and not a product of labor abuses.

Tell NOAA to help stop abuse in the seafood industry!

Eighty percent of the seafood sold in the United States is imported, making it one of the world’s most influential seafood markets. Nearly a third of the wild-caught seafood sold in the U.S. each year was caught through illegal or unreported practices.

Not only does illegal fishing destroy our oceans and deplete fisheries, but it often relies on forced labor and leads to rampant human rights abuses. Because most U.S. seafood is untraceable, U.S. consumers are unwittingly buying fish caught or processed through forced labor or human trafficking.

The United States is one of the world’s largest consumers of illegally fished seafood, and our government has a responsibility to end labor abuse in the seafood industry. NOAA is accepting public comments until March 28th, 2023 on a new proposed rule that would modestly expand the requirements of the U.S. Seafood Import Monitoring Program to help curtail these abuses. But the rule doesn’t go far enough: as proposed, traceability requirements would apply to only half of seafood imports, leaving massive loopholes that are easy for bad actors to exploit. The proposed rule also fails to help address labor abuses in seafood supply chains.

Tell NOAA to help stop abuse in the seafood industry!

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Dear NOAA Administrator Spinrad and NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Coit:

The United States needs an effective seafood traceability program to intercept the flow of illegal seafood into our markets. Illegal fishing is a top driver of unsustainable and environmentally harmful fishing practices around the globe, as well as associated human rights abuses in the seafood sector. The newly proposed changes to the Seafood Import Monitoring Program do not go far enough to help end the U.S.'s role in perpetuating human rights abuses and environmental destruction in the seafood industry.

Illegal fishing is destroying our oceans. Years of overfishing in nearshore waters have forced boats to go into deeper waters, which makes fishing more expensive. Some fishers will cut costs by fishing with illegal gear, fishing in protected areas, or ignoring catch limits. To save on labor costs, some vessel owners rely on human traffickers, some even kidnapping or drugging workers to get them on the ship and cut off from help. Further, the overseas seafood processing industry is heavily reliant on forced labor.

The U.S. is one of the largest consumers of seafood. Approximately eighty percent of the seafood sold in the U.S. is imported, and as much as a third of the wild-caught seafood sold in the United States each year is illegal or unreported.

The U.S. government has a responsibility to fix these problems, and seafood traceability is an essential step in the fight to end illegal fishing and human rights abuses in the seafood industry. But under NOAA Fisheries’ proposed rule, traceability requirements would apply to only half of seafood imports, leaving massive loopholes that are easy for bad actors to exploit. The proposed rule also fails to sufficiently address labor abuses in seafood supply chains, and it includes no commitment to improve enforcement of traceability requirements.

Please revise the Seafood Import Monitoring Program proposed rule to adopt the strongest possible standards for seafood traceability to intercept the flow of illegal seafood into the U.S. and help consumers feel confident the seafood they buy is legally caught and not a product of labor abuses. Thank you for helping to address these environmental and human rights crimes with the seriousness they deserve.

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