Labour abuses, including violence, debt bondage and withheld wages and medical care, overfishing, shark finning, marine mammal killings: A new report exposes bad practices and a weak regulatory framework governing the jumbo flying squid fishery in the Southeast Pacific Ocean.
The report was launched on Feb. 19, just days before the annual meeting of the commission of the South Pacific Regional Fishery Management Organisation (SPRFMO), the intergovernmental body that manages the fishery.
The report drew on interviews with 81 fishers, mainly Indonesian sailors who worked between 2021 and 2025 on 60 Chinese vessels targeting jumbo flying squid in the region. “Our interviews revealed that these vessels are engaged in widespread fisheries abuses and labour abuses,” Dominic Thomson, head of the investigation for U.K.-based NGO the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), told Mongabay.
Jumbo flying squid, also known as Humboldt squid, are large-bodied animals averaging 50 to 80 centimetres (20 to 31 inches) in length. They concentrate in the South Pacific Ocean, off the coast of South America, where they play a key mid-trophic role in the marine ecosystem, serving both as a predator of smaller species and as prey for sharks, swordfish, sperm whales, dolphins and other marine life.
The species is among the most commercially important squid species, accounting for about 30 per cent of global squid landings. The fishery involves South American countries fishing mainly within their exclusive economic zones (EEZs): Ecuador, Chile and Peru. The latter has for decades been the world’s leading producer.
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Because these vessels are often fishing for up to two years at a time, there is very little opportunity for the authorities, whether in China or in Latam countries, to scrutinise the living and working conditions on board.
Dominic Thomson, head of the investigation, Environmental Justice Foundation
In the last decade, however, the fishery has shifted, with increasing activity by China’s fleet operating on the high seas, where the SPRFMO manages fisheries for squid and other species. The number of squid-jigging vessels targeting jumbo flying squid in the SPRFMO convention area rose from 302 in 2016 to 528 in 2023, of which 522 were Chinese-flagged.
In 2023, total jumbo flying squid catches in the Southeast Pacific reached a record high of 1.2 million metric tons, dominated by the Chinese fleet (494,000 metric tons) in the high seas and the Peruvian fleet (622,000 metric tons) within Peru’s EEZ. In 2024, however, this number fell to 601,000 metric tons, raising concerns about overexploitation since the squid are not subject to any catch limitations in SPRFMO-managed waters.
EJF published the report ahead of the 14th SPRFMO Commission meeting, being held in Panama City from March 2-6. The body’s 17 “contracting parties” (16 countries and the European Union) will vote on nine proposals aimed at tightening regulation of the jumbo flying squid fishery.
Routine violations
“We usually killed the shark,” an Indonesian fisher who worked on a Chinese squid vessel told EJF investigators in an interview recorded in June 2024, the transcript of which Mongabay reviewed. “We took the fins. But I didn’t know where the fins were taken,” the former crew member said.
All the fishers EJF interviewed asked for anonymity, citing security reasons. However, a collection of photographs and videos some of them recorded on different vessels, which Mongabay reviewed, corroborates most of the testimonies. Of the 60 vessels they worked on, 35 engaged in shark finning, 18 caught vulnerable marine mammals, such as seals, dolphins and killer whales, and 13 were involved in suspected illegal fishing incidents, often inside Ecuador, Peru or Chile’s EEZs, according to the EJF report.
In some cases the capture of sharks and marine mammals was accidental, according to the testimonies; in others it was intentional. Some videos show fishers finning sharks — cutting fins off living sharks, then throwing them into the sea to die. Shark fins are an expensive delicacy in some Asian countries. An Indonesian fisher interviewed in June 2025 told EJF he had seen his vessel’s head engineer intentionally harpoon “around 50” seals in order to take their fangs. “The rest of their bodies were thrown away,” he said.
Unlike some other regional fisheries management organisations, the SPRFMO has no conservation management measures aimed at prohibiting shark finning or the capture of marine mammals. According to EJF, this regulatory gap is a clear sign of inadequate regulation of this fishery: “This is not only a very destructive practice, but also a very wasteful one,” Thomson said.
The EJF report also documents frequent labour abuses against crew members, including several indicators of forced labor as described by the International Labour Organization. Among them were physical abuse (reported by 41 of the 81 interviewees), threats (20 interviewees), withheld wages or other promised benefits (76 interviewees), debt bondage or manipulation of debt (72 interviewees), and retention of documents such as passports by officers (74 interviewees). The report also documents deaths at sea due to accidents, illness or serious injuries.
“He complained that he was sick, but he wasn’t allowed to leave,” an Indonesian fisher EJF interviewed in September 2025 said, recounting the two months of illness that preceded the death of one of his colleagues at sea in April. “He was forced to work,” the fisher said, “became severe in February” and “wasn’t allowed to leave.”
Mongabay could not independently verify this incident. According to a 2025 report by the International Transport Workers’ Federation, however, between 2013 and 2023, 41 deceased crew members were unloaded from Chinese fishing vessels registered to the SPRFMO or disappeared at sea.
“A lot of interviewees we spoke to describe their crew members and colleagues coming to diseases and work-related accidents which often are the result of negligence,” Thomson told Mongabay. “Because these vessels are often fishing for up to two years at a time, there is very little opportunity for the authorities, whether in China or in Latam countries, to scrutinise the living and working conditions on board,” he said.
Mongabay contacted the two biggest fishing organisations mentioned in EJF’s investigation and two members of the Chinese delegation to the SPRFMO meeting to seek comment for this story, but none had responded by the time this story was published.
In 2023, the Chinese government published a white paper on distant-water fisheries, in which it committed to carry out “full-scale investigations on any report made by other countries and international organisations against suspicious activities conducted by Chinese distant-water fishing vessels.”
Dismal labor conditions and illegal fishing by China’s fleet have been documented in several news reports from recent years, including by Mongabay and The New Yorker, as well as in reports by EJF and other organisations.
The nine proposals
A coalition of 50 organisations, including EJF, US-based conservation NGO Oceana, US-based think tank The Pew Charitable Trusts, as well as artisanal fishing organisations, companies and unions of jumbo flying squid processors and exporters from Chile, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru, signed a letter urging the SPRFMO Commission to adopt the nine proposals to tighten regulation of the squid fishery.
“[W]e consider it urgent to strengthen the management regime for this fishery,” the letter states. It calls for the adoption of a precautionary approach “in order to prevent increasing risks to the sustainability of the resource and to the socioeconomic stability of the communities that depend on this activity, particularly artisanal fishers in Chile, Ecuador, and Peru.”
Fishers’ organisations from these countries view the lack of catch limits in SPRFMO waters as unequal treatment that favours the Chinese fleet. “They fish 365 days a year while we have a quota to respect,” said Elsa Vega, president of the National Society of Artisanal Fishing of Peru, during an online media briefing.
The nine proposals the SPRFMO Commission will consider aim to: implement a catch limit for jumbo flying squid (proposals by Ecuador, the US and New Zealand); create a no-fishing “buffer” zone along the outer limit of national EEZs (Ecuador and Peru); establish more stringent procedures for port entry (EU) or for transshipment operations (Ecuador); put in place clear labor standards (US); and improve data reporting requirements (South Korea).
If the commission adopts the nine proposals, it will help address many of the issues identified in the EJF investigation, Thompson said. “They would strengthen transhipment restrictions. They would strengthen portside inspections of distant water vessels as well, improve living and working conditions on board vessels, and also improve supply chain traceability,” he said.
This story was published with permission from Mongabay.com.
