How AP stories are changing how retailers purchase fish and shrimp

A team of four Associated Press reporters disclosed earlier this week that grocery stores and restaurants across the world, including Wal-Mart and Red Lobster, are selling shrimp peeled by slaves.

That story has prompted exporters and retailers to promise changes this week in the system of exporting and purchasing fish.

The story, by Margie Mason, Robin McDowell, Martha Mendoza and Esther Htusan followed stories reported and published earlier this year that disclosed that retailers across the world were selling fish caught by slaves from Myanmar.

Those stories resulted in more than 2,000 slaves being freed and retailers changing how they purchased fish. And they won the gold award in the ninth annual Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism for their work exposing slavery in the fishing industry in Southeast Asia and connecting the practice to U.S. supermarkets and pet food companies. Those awards are run by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University.

Mason is the AP bureau chief in Indonesia, a position she was appointed to in 2012.

Mason first joined AP in 1997 in Charleston, West Virginia. In 2000, she joined the San Francisco bureau, where she covered the city. In 2003, she transferred to Hanoi, Vietnam, where she developed a regional Asia-Pacific medical beat, a role she will continue to serve in Jakarta. Since 2010, she also served as acting bureau chief for Vietnam.

Mason spoke with Talking Biz News by email this week about the stories. What follows is an edited transcript.

How did the first story about the slave fishermen get started?

Robin McDowell and I had been working on stories about Rohingya boat people in the region and were turned onto the idea of abused fishermen two years ago by a source in Indonesia. We knew the Thai fishing industry had long been a problem, and decided we wanted to tackle it and show that seafood caught by slaves was being exported to America.

How were you able to find actual examples?

We heard that the worst abuses on Thai fishing trawlers were happening farther and farther from the country’s waters. At the same time, we started hearing that fishermen were stranded on remote Indonesian islands, including one that was incredibly difficult to reach.

No one had actually been to Benjina to check it out, though, so it was shocking when we found men locked in a cage there and enslaved fishermen begging for help from their trawlers.

What was the hardest part of the reporting?

The hardest part by far was actually finding captive slaves. Others had written stories based on interviews with people who had escaped or been rescued, but we wanted to actually find cases of people stuck in an abusive situation.

The reporting was incredibly challenging on many levels. It was dangerous at times and there was so much fraud and corruption, it was nearly impossible to find legitimate documents or paper trails. After tracking a cargo ship loaded with slave-caught fish from Indonesia to Thailand, we spent hours upon hours crammed into the backseat of a small pickup following loads of fish to Thai exporting companies that could then be traced to the U.S.

One other major challenge was AP’s decision to make sure all the men featured in our story were safely away from the island before we published so we could use their names and faces without worrying about potential repercussions. We asked the International Organization for Migration to help with this, but it took time and was not an easy feat. In the end, all the men in our story, photos and video were safe when the package came out.

How did the companies selling the fish react when you contacted them?

Almost all of the American companies issued statements condemning slavery and saying they are working with their Thai suppliers to fix the problem. No one was surprised to hear that these issues were occurring, though.

How does it feel to know your stories have had an impact on people’s lives?

It’s an incredible feeling to know that we’ve been able to free people from slavery with our journalism. It’s so rare to see this kind of direct impact from your work. I was able to follow one Burmese man home after he had been trapped in Indonesia for 22 years.

Seeing him reunite with his mother after not having any contact with her for all that time is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever witnessed. The entire team is so invested in this story.

So, how did the shrimp story that ran this week come about?

We wanted to show that this problem is not just something that occurs on Thai fishing boats in foreign waters far from any oversight. We knew it was happening just an hour outside of Bangkok, and that women and children were victims there as well.

Was it easier or harder to report this story with people knowing about the previous story?

Some things were easier because we learned a lot from our mistakes on the first story. We definitely knew how to operate better this time, and we had a very clear understanding going in about how to get certain information.

But we also needed to find an abusive shed. That was tricky and potentially dangerous, not just for us, but for the people working inside. We spent a lot of time talking about how to make sure our reporting did not put anyone in harm’s way.

Do you think there are other examples like this in the world that haven’t been reported?

Absolutely. We picked one industry in one country, and we’ve been quick to tell people that just because we are not singling out seafood exported from other places, that doesn’t mean there aren’t problems there too.

In the State Department’s annual trafficking report, it lists labor abuses in the seafood sectors of around 55 countries, but there’s also many mentions of problems elsewhere such as in the garment industry or mining or in factories or plantations.

What has been the reaction from the retailers mentioned in the story?

Most have condemned slavery and vowed to conduct audits or take other action to ensure their supply chains are clean.

How much time was spent reporting vs. writing the story?

It took about three and a half months to report, write and edit the shrimp story. However, we came up with the idea earlier this year and did a lot of additional research and legwork before ever going to Thailand.