Ethical Tuna Collaboration
After a decade of investment in various improvement efforts, impact remains fragmented, and forced labor remains a major systemic risk in tuna supply chains. The risks are greatest for workers on distant water fishing vessels.
An intensive scoping process in 2025 identified a clear need to build on existing efforts that have assessed the risk of forced labor on tuna vessels. Now, industry, international labor rights and sustainability experts, and frontline organizations are working together to scale action to help address identified risks.
The Ethical Tuna Collaboration is designing an industry-wide initiative to engage U.S. buyers to help address forced labor at the vessel level. The initiative is focusing on three near-term priorities for addressing forced labor on tuna vessels: 1) timely payment of wages per contract terms; 2) no worker-paid recruitment fees; and 3) worker access to Wi-Fi and effective grievance mechanisms while onboard vessels. It will be designed to expand over time to other human and labor rights issues. The scope is all tuna sold in the U.S. market, including fresh, frozen, and shelf-stable.
The Ethical Tuna Collaboration is funded by Walmart. The コンサベーション・アライアンス・フォー・シーフード・ソリューションズ（CASS is the convenor, leveraging its global membership and track record of effective pre-competitive collaboration to help translate this shared understanding into coordinated action. Funding does not confer governance, veto, or preferential rights. CASS, as convenor, maintains independent discretion over program administration and process, and the working group operates under documented conflict-of-interest and recusal procedures.
Project Timeline
Scoping for this work started in early 2025 and included a series of discussions with industry and NGO representatives to develop and refine the initiative concept. In early 2026, CASS invited a working group of industry representatives, labor rights and sustainability experts, and organizations working directly with fishers in high-priority supply chains to participate in a one-year rapid design process to create a blueprint for the initiative and select an implementing organization.
The design process will include robust stakeholder outreach with industry at all levels of the supply chain, international labor rights and sustainability NGOs, frontline organizations that work with or represent fishers, and other relevant experts. This will include two formal rounds of stakeholder feedback planned for June-August and October-December 2026.
Companies and NGOs will determine individually if they will endorse or join the initiative after the design process concludes in spring 2027. Endorsement or participation by any company or NGO is voluntary and does not result in, or is it a condition for, preferential treatment by any participant or funder.
Ethical Tuna Collaboration Working Group
The working group serves as the decision maker for all aspects of the initiative, including the program design, the implementing organization, and related decisions. Working group members are subject to a conflict-of-interest policy. Working group members were selected based on their:
- Representation of a wide range of perspectives, expertise, and organization sizes and geographic locations;
- Participation in and willingness to leverage connections to related efforts, such as industry or civil society collaborations and networks, to support stakeholder engagement and cross-communication during the design process;
- Willingness to pilot data reporting and/or improvement work where relevant; and
- Commitment to collaborative engagement.
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Anti-Trust Compliance
This project will be conducted in accordance with applicable antitrust and competition laws. Nothing in this project shall be construed to require or encourage coordination on pricing, supplier selection, or other competitively sensitive matters.
