Only four of the largest 30 tuna fishing companies disclose catch data, exposing investors to supply chain risk

Seafood, Financial Risk & Reward, Shareholder Engagement, Transparency & Traceability, Equity
12 June 2025

Planet Tracker has traced 2,153 fishing vessels to the world’s largest tuna harvesting companies – revealing, for the first time, their catch volumes by stock in the absence of adequate reporting from companies.

  • Several companies – including Albacora, Maruha Nichiro, Dongwon, Bolton Group and Sajo – are key harvesters of tuna species threatened with extinction.
  • An estimated 56% of the 30 largest tuna companies’ catch is untraceable, and many of them spend more time fishing with their tracking systems turned off than on.
  • Yet, Planet Tracker finds that improving catch transparency creates a positive net financial outcome, as well as being necessary to reduce risks for investors.

London, June 13, 2025 – As the UN World Ocean Conference concludes, new research from Planet Tracker reveals for the first time the actual catch of the world’s 30 largest tuna harvesters despite their highly opaque disclosures.

The study, Tuna Turner: Investors Must Turn Up Transparency in the Tuna Industry, trawls Global Fishing Watch data to reconstruct catch volumes by species and region for all 2,153 industrial vessels fishing tuna globally. The research attributes these details for the first time to companies and the countries they are headquartered, aiming to fill in the gaps in company disclosure.

The report focuses on the 30 largest harvesters of tuna globally – the ‘Tuna 30*’ – accounting for 46% (2.4 million tonnes) of global tuna catch. Only four out of 30 firms report any tuna catch volumes, with even lower transparency on species caught, location, catch methods and certification levels: just one of the 30 companies – Bolton Group – discloses this data.

Without knowing what, where, how much and how companies fish, investors cannot know which of them are most exposed to sustainability risks. Whilst most tuna stocks are not overfished, tuna biomass has declined by 40% to 80%. And, major ecological damage persists in numerous tuna fisheries, demonstrated by millions of dead sharks and millions of plastic buoys drifting across 37% of the ocean.

The Tuna 30 overall extract 12% of their catch from stocks that are not at healthy levels of abundance or that are experiencing or might experience overfishing. Planet Tracker estimates that over 40% of the harvest from SAPMER, China National Agricultural Development Group and Maruha Nichiro comes from such stocks.

As top predators in the food chain, tuna species contribute to a healthy ocean and are allies against climate change by moving nutrients between the depths and the surface. As such, responsible tuna fishing is vital.

However, several tuna species are threatened with extinction. The research finds that Albacora, Maruha Nichiro, Dongwon, Bolton Group and Sajo are likely key harvesters of these threatened species.

Planet Tracker also finds that 56% of the Tuna 30’s catch is “dark”, meaning it could not be associated to a company due to missing ownership information or satellite data. Further, most Tuna 30 companies may be spending more time fishing with their Automatic Identification System (AIS) switched off than on.

The study estimates that better data on ownership information and eliminating these AIS gaps could improve profits and valuations in the industry by an average of 0.6% and 1% respectively within five years.

Francois Mosnier, Head of Nature at Planet Tracker, said: “It is shocking that 26 out of the world’s 30 largest tuna fishing companies do not disclose how much tuna they catch. Our report is the first-of-its-kind plugging the data gap left by companies’ lacking disclosure and satellite tracking holes. But, given the volume of missing information, we rely on estimates and sophisticated modelling.

“Better transparency, in the form of corporate disclosure on catch and AIS usage, is crucial to help investors understand the exact risks their portfolios are exposed to. We cannot distinguish good behaviour from bad behaviour without first knowing what is actually being caught, where and how on a company-by-company basis.”

Planet Tracker urges investors to demand full disclosure from tuna companies on catch data and AIS compliance as a baseline for responsible investment.

-ENDS-

Notes to editor:

*Planet Tracker used Global Fishing Watch data to create a database of 736,000 “likely tuna” fishing events for the year 2022, to analyse 2,153 vessels catching tuna.

** The ‘Tuna 30’: the largest harvesters of tuna globally (Source: Planet Tracker, Global Fishing Watch, companies’ disclosure) 

Company info Does the company report…?
Name Country Own catch volumes (tonnes) … its total tuna catch in tonnes? … the exact species of tuna it catches? … where it catches tuna? … how it catches tuna? … the catch volume for each species of tuna it catches? … the catch volume for each fishing gear? … the catch volume for each catch location? … whether it catches tuna from either MSC-certified or FIP fisheries? … how much tuna it catches from either MSC-certified or FIP fisheries?*
BRIGHT FOOD GROUP China 211,978 No Yes Yes Yes No No No No No
DONGWON INDUSTRIES South Korea 210,000 Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes
NAUTERRA Spain 192,685 No Yes Yes No Yes (1) Yes (1) Yes (1) Yes Yes
JEALSA RIANXEIRA Spain 186,000 No Yes No No No No No No No
SILLA CO LTD South Korea 172,000 No No Yes Yes No No No Yes No
ALBACORA GROUP Spain 156,000 No Yes No Yes No No No Yes No
NISSUI Japan 150,000 No Yes No No No No No Yes Yes
SAJODAERIM CORP South Korea 145,000 No No No Yes No No No Yes No
FRABELLE GROUP Philippines 100,000 No No Yes Yes No No No No No
FCF GROUP Taiwan 81,628 No Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes
GRUPO PINSA Mexico 75,000 No Yes No No No No No No No
ZHEJIANG OCEAN FAMILY China 73,891 No Yes No Yes No No No No No
EUROFISH Ecuador 71,429 No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
PARLEVLIET & VAN DER PLAS Netherlands 59,091 No Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No
NEGOCIOS INDUSTRIALES REAL NIRSA SA Ecuador 53,601 No No No No No No No Yes No
MARUHA NICHIRO Japan 47,000 Yes No No No No No No Yes No
BOLTON GROUP Italy 45,000 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
GRUPO PEZATUN Venezuela 44,085 No No Yes Yes No No No No No
FUKUICHI Japan 43,370 No No Yes Yes No No No No No
CAROLINE FISHERIES Micronesia 36,966 No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No
CHINA NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT GROUP China 30,991 No No No Yes No No No No No
KYOKUYO CO Japan 28,000 Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No No No
GRUPO CIMERA Ecuador 25,932 No No Yes Yes No Yes No No No
ATUNSA Spain 24,926 No Yes Yes Yes No No No No No
INEPACA Ecuador 24,522 No No No No No No No No No
SAPMER France 18,182 No Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No
GRUPOMAR Mexico 16,648 No No No No No No No No No
GRUPO BUITRAGO Ecuador 16,000 No No Yes Yes No Yes No No No
FISHECUADOR Ecuador 15,437 No No No No No No No Yes No
THAI UNION GROUP Thailand 14,065 No Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes

Read the full report here.

See interactive dashboard here:

For more information, please contact: 

Ino Rousselet, ESG Communications | t: + 44 (0)7580 743 364| planettracker@esgcomms.com

Sally Palmer, Head of Communications, Planet Tracker | t: + 44 (0)7799472824 | sally@planet-tracker.org

About Planet Tracker

Planet Tracker is an award-winning non-profit financial think tank aligning capital markets with planetary boundaries. Created with the vision of a financial system that is fully aligned with a net-zero, resilient, nature positive, and just economy well before 2050, Planet Tracker generates break-through analytics that reveal both the role of capital markets in the degradation of our ecosystem and show the opportunities of transitioning to a zero-carbon, nature positive economy.

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Tuna Turner: Investors Must Turn Up Transparency in the Tuna Industry