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Interactive Supply Chain

Interactive Tuna Supply Chain

Tuna is typically harvested on the high seas where monitoring and regulatory enforcement are weak. Also, at-sea transshipment practices, common in high seas tuna fisheries, allow fishing vessels to spend extended periods away from ports. These conditions are especially prevalent in distant water fishing vessels, where illegal fishing and human rights and labor abuses can occur with impunity. Transparent, data-rich fisheries coupled with electronic monitoring and enforcement lead to more efficient and sustainable seafood supply chains.

To visualize the complexities within a seafood supply chain, SALT created an interactive Tuna Supply Chain. It highlights the most important events where data transfers occur as the seafood moves from where it is harvested to where it is sold. The following graphic illustrates six supply chain steps that show a “good” good line color versus “bad” bad line color path, where illegal fish illegal fish icon may be mixed in with legal fish.

Each step has a clickable toolbar of icons to help users understand: the risks risk icon at each node of product transfer; key data elements (KDEs) key data element icon collected electronically to increase the transparency of seafood products (and reduce risk); questions question icon that seafood buyers can ask to better understand seafood’s origin; and additional resources resources icon that focus on sustainable and socially responsible tuna supply chains.

1. Harvesting

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Two fishing vessels are operating at the sea.

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When the catch area is unknown, a harvest may have occurred outside of legal fishing zones.
Undocumented fish can hide unethical and illegal, unreported, or unregulated (IUU) fishing practices.
Fishers may be out at sea for long periods if trip dates are undocumented.
Fishing gear types are not created equal and are a critical factor in stock sustainability.
2. At-Sea Transshipment

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A carrier boat appears, one of the fishing vessels from the previous stage drops off harvested fish to the carrier boat. This activity is called transshipment.

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At-sea transshipment enables fishing vessels to remain out at sea indefinitely, creating potential risks for labor abuse and unsafe working conditions.
Monitoring and oversight are more challenging outside a country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and high seas RFMOs (Regional Fishery Management Organizations) have different regulatory measures and enforcement strategies.
When multiple fishing vessels offload to a carrier vessel, there is an increased risk of mixing legal and illegal catch.
Without adequate port inspections, vessels may offload undocumented catch. The PSMA requires parties to enforce regulations on foreign-flagged vessels entering ports to offload their catch; countries that ratify this agreement further mitigate risks of illegal-caught products from entering port.
3. Landing/Offloading
[Transfer of catch at port]

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A fishing vessel docks at the port and offloads the catch. At the port, officers are checking documents to check the legality of the fish.

The carrier boat docks at the port and offloads the fish collected from fishing vessels operating at open water.  Illegally caught fish is mixed in with legal fish in one of the container,.

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Countries have varying levels of port regulation. If not monitored, fish from multiple fishing trips containing legal and illegal harvests could be commingled at port, and traceability is lost.
4. Sales/Mid-Chain Companies

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Accurate information of the fish is shared electronically from one company to another.

Some information about the fish is shared via paper documents. Intentional or unintentional fraud can occur if a product is mislabeled or misreported.

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When catch documentation and chain of custody information pass through multiple companies in the mid-supply chain, that complexity increases the chance of losing data (especially if not electronically recorded).
Intentional or unintentional fraud can occur if a product is mislabeled or misreported.
5. Processing & Export

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Now illegally caught fish from the bad path is mixed with the fish from the good path. There is a higher risk of labor abuses in processing facilities where audits and inspections are lacking.

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Transformations of tuna into cans or fillets make it challenging to connect the product back to harvest without electronic catch documentation and traceability (eCDT).
There is a higher risk of labor abuses in processing facilities where audits and inspections are lacking, which is often connected to illegal fishing practices.
Certain products go through multiple stages of processing that often occur in various locations and sometimes different countries (i.e. primary and secondary processing).
6. Transport/Distribution to Import

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The processed products are exported. Countries have varying levels of import data requirements related to food safety and, more recently, to deter illegal and unethical supply chain practices up the supply chain. The top 3 global seafood import markets have implemented such controls: U.S., EU, and Japan.

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Countries have varying levels of import data requirements related to food safety and, more recently, to deter illegal and unethical supply chain practices up the supply chain. Click import icons to see the top three global seafood import markets’ import controls.
Lack of enforceable import controls can result in the entry of illegally caught, processed, or traded products and hidden labor abuses along the supply chain.

The resources highlighted in this supply chain are specific to electronic traceability, counter-illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing, and human rights in tuna fisheries but are certainly not an exhaustive list. For additional information, you can explore our Dive Deeper resources related to supply chain transparency: https://fishwise.org/dive-deeper/.