We’re contacting Bumble Bee Foods regarding our research on the practice of ‘flagging in’, whereby fishing vessels owned by companies in one country are flagged to another country in order to access that second country’s waters. We are not indicating explicitly or implicitly that flagging-in is illegal, we are just taking a look at the issue of flagging-in globally.
Trade records show that Bumble Bee Foods was the consignee for multiple shipments of tuna in 2019 from Zhejiang Ocean Family, a large Chinese seafood company which owns dozens of fishing vessels flagged to Kiribati and Argentina.…
I am responding to your inquiry on behalf of Bumble Bee Seafoods, as follows: Bumble Bee Seafoods has ceased sourcing from ZOF vessels. Our company enforces a strict policy against the acceptance of any seafood products originating from IUU fishing or forced labor. Thank you for the email.