Seafood caught by Thailand’s notorious ghost fishing fleet may have contaminated the supply chains of a sushi company operating in more than 165 Woolworths supermarkets.
Guardian Australia can reveal that Woolworths and its fresh sushi partner, Sushi Izu, are scrambling to investigate the allegations, which could contravene the “ethical sourcing” requirements the supermarket giant imposes on suppliers.
Repeated investigations, including by the Guardian, have revealed that Thailand’s distant water fishing fleet subjects its crews to human rights abuses. Fishermen are often victims of human trafficking, trapped using debt bondage, regularly beaten, and allowed to die from easily treatable diseases. Their treatment has been described as modern-day slavery.
The vessels illegally fish in unregulated and unwatched waters throughout Asia and the Pacific, and have caused significant damage to fragile marine ecosystems.
This week, after a 12-month investigation, Greenpeace showed how the fleet continued to operate in 2015, even after media pressure prompted crackdowns in Indonesia, Thailand and, later, Papua New Guinea.
The group tracked the fleet to the Indian Ocean and monitored its catch as it moved through supply chains, ending up in supermarkets, restaurants and takeaways across the world.
In one instance, it traced seafood to Pacific Marine Food Products, a company producing a base for surimi, or fish paste, which was in turn supplied to a processor, Lucky Union Foods.
One of the companies that bought surimi from Lucky Union was a US-based sushi franchise, Advanced Fresh Concepts, which operates 3,300 sushi bars in North America.
AFC has strong links to Woolworths and Australia, which were not explored in Greenpeace’s report. In 2011 AFC, under the brand Sushi Izu, partnered with Woolworths to supply fresh sushi products to 165 of its stores.
Sushi Izu operates in Woolworths stores in every state and territory in Australia, except Tasmania, often running standalone in-store sushi bars.
Woolworths issued a short statement to Guardian Australia on Friday, confirming that it was investigating the allegations.
“Our supplier trading terms require that trading partners comply with all relevant legislation regarding ethical sourcing,” the statement said. “We take these allegations seriously and are working collaboratively with Advanced Fresh Concepts to investigate this matter.”
Sushi Izu also confirmed it was investigating the allegations: “We take these allegations seriously and are working collaboratively with our business partners to investigate this matter.”
Human rights abuses on board the Thai ghost fishing fleet were exposed in a series of investigations by the Guardian and other media outlets in the past two years. After the media pressure, the fleet moved to Papua New Guinea’s dog-leg region, just north of Australia.
Greenpeace found that the vessels, at some points, entered Australia’s northern waters.
The PNG government launched a crackdown last year, forcing the Thai fishing fleet far west to an unregulated area of the Indian Ocean called the Saya de Malha – the world’s largest submerged bank.
Greenpeace interviewed survivors of the fleet, largely poor Cambodian and Burmese migrants, who spoke of repeated abuse onboard.
One survivor told Greenpeace: “I was afraid that I would be eaten by sharks if I jumped into the sea to escape.
“There were six Thai men who jumped into the sea because they couldn’t take the heavy work and violence. Four were recaptured and beaten while the other two disappeared because there was a storm and big waves that night.”
Another pleaded with companies to stop buying the “blood-soaked fish”, and a third said: “It seems to me like buying these fish and eating these fish is one of the things that keeps us suffering. We faced much hardship just to catch those fish.”
