The Tuna Transparency Pledge has gained multiple major signatories – including retailers, suppliers, and tuna associations – as it pushes to increase on-the-water monitoring of the world’s tuna vessels.
The Tuna Transparency Pledge is a global initiative started by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in 2024. The central goal of the pledge is to gain signatories who promise to advance on-the-water monitoring across tuna-fishing vessels within their supply chains, with a goal of reaching 100 percent on-the-water monitoring by 2027.
Initial signatories to the pledge included Walmart, Albertsons Companies, and Thai Union – along with the governments of Belize and the Federated States of Micronesia.
Now, TNC announced it has gained several new signatories including Carrefour, Aramark, Culimer USA, Lusamerica Foods, Pacific Island Tuna, and the Association of Large Freezer Tuna Vessels.
“We’re super excited to have the latest round of signatories join the pledge,” TNC Large-Scale Fisheries Director Ben Gilmer told SeafoodSource. “The world we want to see, and believe in, is 100 percent transparency and accountability on the water in industrial fisheries, and we think a key to doing that is to have 100 percent monitoring.”
Gilmer said the new companies represent major parts of the overall global tuna supply chain, and having them on board will be a major boon for the Tuna Transparency Pledge.
“We’re excited for this next wave of signatories which includes one of the world’s biggest foodservice companies – Aramark – and a major European retailer in Carrefour,” Gilmer said.
Aramark is the first foodservice company to adopt the pledge, according to TNC.
“The pledge reinforces Aramark’s commitment to sustainable seafood and recognizes the important steps that need to be taken to improve data and transparency in tuna supply chains,” Aramark Vice President of Responsible Sourcing Natily Santos said.
Carrefour Chief Impact Officer Carine Kraus said joining the pledge adds to its existing environmental commitments; it joined the Global Tuna Alliance in 2024 as part of its work to strengthen fisheries management practices.
“Tuna plays an important role in our offer, as one of our most popular seafood products. However, tuna supply chains bear human risk and biodiversity challenges that we must address,” Kraus said.
The central goal of the transparency pledge is “first-mile accountability” for the global tuna fleet to ensure that the rest of the supply chain has a solid platform of traceability to build off of – with a major focus on enhancing electronic monitoring (EM) of the fleet.
“Step one with this work is, ‘What exactly is happening on the vessel?’” Gilmer said.
Gilmer said a lot of traceability systems rely on an initial origin point that is largely unverified and self-reported. Many tuna fleets have observer levels below 10 percent, meaning that a large portion of the first-mile transparency is completely relying on self-reporting with no way to verify any of the information.
“That’s the gap we’re trying to close here,” Gilmer said.
Having signatories on the pledge helps advocate for establishing standards at a fishery management level as well so that companies, governments, and regional fishery management organizations (RFMOs) all align on what monitoring looks like.
“RFMOs, have passed EM standards in recent years – thanks to the help of a whole bunch of people – that really help give governments a framework,” Gilmer said.
More specifically, those standards help give governments confidence in establishing an EM program that they know will align with regional management standards, he said.
“That was a big barrier that was mitigated over the last couple years,” Gilmer said.
Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Biodiversity and Nature Director Katheryn Novak said electronic monitoring is the best opportunity to scale observer coverage in the fleet and increase data collection.
“Longline tuna fisheries in particular interact with some of the most vulnerable species of marine wildlife yet have the lowest levels of observer coverage and monitoring,” Novak said. “Companies taking the pledge and working with their supply chains to increase monitoring can help reduce bycatch of seabirds and sharks and ensure compliance with regulations, social and labor safeguards, and corporate requirements and standards."
Increased monitoring and transparency is also beneficial to the many good actors in the global tuna fishing fleet, as it provides a way to differentiate legal product from product potentially sourced by illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing – which can often be less expensive and more attractive to buyers.
“There are many law-abiding fishers out there,” Gilmer said. "This is an opportunity to support the many legal fishers out there, who sometimes get lost in the conversation.”
