November 22, 2021 — The Taiwan Tuna Association has teamed up with the National Chung Cheng University to trial a video-monitoring system aboard its fishing vessels, aimed at stamping out labor abuses.
The TTA said it’s using a government grant to install the surveillance systems on its distant-water fishing vessels, allowing onshore monitoring and the use of blockchain to guarantee the validity of the captured data. The move comes as part of a three-year experimental project titled “Fulfilling the Protection of Human Rights at Sea and Supporting the Sustainable Development of Fisheries with Technology: Establishing Person-Centered Decent Labor Policies in Distant Water Fisheries.” The project is funded in part by Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology, which plans to set up a communication platform for stakeholders “utilizing advanced technologies, such as big data and blockchain,” according to the TTA.