Reeling in labor abuse: Building tools to improve accountability in the fishing industry

In 2020, the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation approached Stanford's Center for Ocean Solutions (COS) to help identify priorities for action on social sustainability issues in seafood supply chains. After years of collaboration with a range of partners, the result is IKAN, a digital platform designed to support migrant fishers in better understanding their rights, tracking whether contract terms are being met, and accessing information and support if problems arise. IKAN currently focuses on Indonesian migrant fishers working on Taiwan-flagged tuna fishing vessels, but is designed to be flexible to address similar issues in other migration corridors and fisheries. 

The platform is a product of collaboration among researchers at COS and the Stanford Center for Human Rights and International Justice (CHRIJ), as well as seafood companies, civil society organizations, such as the Indonesia Ocean Justice Initiative, and FiftyEight, which builds technology solutions. It was also shaped by years of conversations with government officials in Indonesia and Taiwan, as well fishers themselves.

Below, COS Managing Director Liz Selig and CHRIJ Director of Human Trafficking Research Jessie Brunner, along with Anissa Yusha Amalia of the Indonesia Ocean Justice Initiative, share why they chose to focus on wage abuses, how fishers helped shape IKAN, and why protecting workers and oceans go hand in hand.

How did conversations with fishers shape the design of IKAN, and what did they tell you they needed most?

Yusha Amalia: When we spoke with fishers, we heard the same concerns again and again. They wanted to know whether they would receive the wages they had been promised, what they were agreeing to when they signed contracts, and where they could find reliable information if problems arose. More broadly, they wanted their rights to be respected and fulfilled throughout the migration and employment process. Those conversations became the foundation of IKAN's design. They showed that wage abuses were often linked to broader forms of exploitation, making it an important entry point for addressing labor and human rights issues in the fishing industry.

How does IKAN help to address contract and wage abuses?

Brunner: Our hope for IKAN is that it creates an opportunity to triangulate the various needs and incentives of the many actors across the seafood supply chain in a way that results in safe, fair, dignified working conditions for fishers. It was clear early on that tracking whether workers were paid completely and on time as well as alignment with international standards on other contract terms were important. We hope the platform can help make meaningful progress on these goals.   

How are the conditions faced by fishers connected to the health of our oceans?

Selig: When fisheries are overharvested, fishers need to spend more time at sea to catch the same amount of fish they previously caught, making it hard for fisheries to remain profitable. These dynamics can lead to a greater likelihood of wage abuses because fuel and labor are the two biggest costs in fishing. Engaging in labor abuses then facilitates continued overharvesting, a feedback loop damaging to people and ecosystems.  

Is there a particular conversation with a fisher that changed how you think about this issue and reminds you why this work matters?

Brunner: Nearly a decade ago when I first started researching human trafficking, I spoke with an Indonesian fisher who’d been trafficked to South Africa. Thinking back to what he shared and how scared he felt to be in a place so far from home – from any sense of community and support – facing unimaginable conditions while navigating what even in the best of circumstances is a lot of uncertainty and unpredictability inherent to distant water fishing keeps me motivated to continue this work.