June 01, 2018
Tuna tainted by slave conditions
Greenpeace is calling on the Government to reintroduce a bill that could stop slave-tainted tuna being sold in New Zealand.
It also wants consumers to demand to know where their tuna comes from.
New Zealand lawyer Tim McKinnell, who headed a two-year Greenpeace investigation into the international tuna fishing industry, says there are massive abuses, people trafficking and outright slavery on many vessels.
His report Misery at sea: Human suffering in Taiwan’s distant water fishing fleets found workers are promised good wages but find themselves at sea for months or years working long hours for the equivalent of 15 New Zealand cents an hour.
He says the organisation wanted to look at the environmental effects of tuna fishing, but quickly realised human rights was a major part of the story.
"What we also found is it's almost certain that where there are human rights abuses there are environmental abuses, and that's not just over-fishing, that's not just shark finning and using illegal equipment and fishing in places where you shouldn't. It's other things too like dumping oil overboard and discarding rubbish and treating the oceans like a tip," Mr McKinnell says.
Tuna fleets use a range of techniques to keep their activities out of sight, including hiding behind shell companies and flagging their ships in other countries.
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