Labour abuses in global fisheries are pervasive, yet oversight mechanisms intended to mitigate risk and guide responsible seafood sourcing often fail to detect exploitation at sea.
Experts have raised concerns that the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) social policies and practices may obscure labour abuses in seafood supply chains by undermining enforcement efforts and reducing scrutiny.
This report identifies 80 cases of labour abuses onboard 72 vessels harvesting MSC-certified seafood products by cross-referencing data on known cases of labour abuse from the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) between 2019 and 2025 with publicly available vessel information from the MSC. Findings highlight systemic weaknesses in MSC’s data accessibility and transparency, and overall accountability.
