San Francisco, CA – April 9, 2026 — Following a year-long scoping process with stakeholders across the seafood sector, the Ethical Tuna Collaboration (ETC) has launched its design phase, marking a major step toward addressing forced labor risks in tuna supply chains serving the U.S. market. The project is the latest from responsible seafood movement convenor, Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions (CASS).
The ETC brings together a multistakeholder working group to design the initiative. This differs from traditional initiatives, which are typically led solely by industry or civil society, by fostering shared responsibility and coordinated action across the system.
“Different outcomes start with taking an intentionally different approach,” said Meaghan Hudgins, CASS Executive Director. “This is the first time in the seafood sector that industry at all levels of the supply chain, national organizations that work with fishers, and international human rights and sustainability experts are co-designing a program to help address forced labor.”
After more than a decade of fragmented efforts, forced labor remains a significant systemic risk in tuna supply chains—particularly for workers on distant water fishing vessels.
“Individual companies are working to mitigate forced labor risks in their own supply chains, but these problems are systemic,” shares Jack Scott of Nestle Purina. “We need an industry-wide solution to drive change at scale. That’s the unique value and focus of the Ethical Tuna Collaboration.”
The ETC working group will decide on all elements of the initiative’s design and select an implementing partner to stand up the initiative. As currently envisioned, ETC will collect and aggregate data to track vessel performance on fisher outcomes, providing a clearer picture of conditions at sea. The initiative will partner with frontline organizations to verify data and support vessel-level improvements, initially focusing on the Indonesia–Taiwan corridor. In addition, ETC will equip seafood buyers with actionable insights to inform their individual sourcing decisions, while publicly reporting on progress in aggregate to promote transparency and accountability across the sector.
During its first five years, ETC will focus on three priorities within forced labor:
- Timely payment of wages
- Elimination of fisher-paid recruitment fees through the Employer Pays Principle
- Access to Wi-Fi and effective grievance mechanisms for fishers at sea
“Evolving due diligence legislation increasingly implicates buyers in the prevention, mitigation, and remediation of forced labor risks in their entire supply chains, even the parts that they may not interact with directly,” explains Chavi Keeney Nana, Director of Equitable Global Supply Chains at Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. “ETC is creating a bridge between buyers and the tuna vessels they source from, so that market incentives and financial and capacity-building support enable vessel owners to improve.”
Central to the design process will be the collection of broad, diverse stakeholder feedback, especially from those closest to the challenge.
“ETC’s design phase will include several ways of engaging workers – including soliciting feedback from international and national unions, from frontline organizations that work directly with fishers, and from fishers themselves. This will enable workers’ perspectives to be thoughtfully integrated into program design.” Jeremia Humolong Prasetya, Senior Program Manager of Indonesia Ocean Justice Initiative, says.
The design phase began in February 2026 and is expected to conclude in March 2027. CASS encourages buyers and seafood companies, NGOs, unions, and subject matter experts to contribute their insights throughout the process by connecting with CASS. ETC also plans two public stakeholder consultation opportunities in June-August 2026 and October-December 2026.
