Investigation record

Methodology

In an effort at fuller transparency and to spur further reporting, we chronicled our methodology at every step and provided our ingredient research materials.

6 topics
151 questions
21 country memos

Investigating Crimes & Concerns at Fishmeal Plants

01–18

What is meant by the “Crimes & Concerns” label?

How did we map the world’s fishmeal & fish oil plants?

How did we use machinery purchases to better map the global fishmeal & fish oil market?

How did we verify the addresses & geo-coordinates for fishmeal plants?

How did we check for complaints, citations, litigation, or protests tied to plants?

What were some of the search tactics used to find existing reporting on labor or environmental concerns tied to fishmeal plants?

How did we handle the offline archiving of so many links throughout this investigation?

How did we use code to search news websites more efficiently?

How did we sweep government & NGO websites for mentions of plants & ships in our database?

How did we go about hunting for imagery (stills & video footage) to illustrate the reporting in this project?

How did we find visuals of fishing vessels for Bait To Plate?

How did we find videos of fires tied to fishmeal ships & plants?

How did we calculate the number of people living near plants?

How did we research the various odor-mitigating techniques deployed by fishmeal plants?

How did we assess the role of ethoxyquin in the global fishmeal industry?

How did we take Food & Drug Administration data to assess the amount of ethoxyquin coming into the US?

How did we compile statistics about fires globally connected to fishmeal ships or plants?

How did we investigate the history of ethoxyquin being used as a fire retardant in China?

Investigating Crimes & Concerns on Fishmeal Ships

01–12

How did we use the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency?

How did we identify ships that supplied raw materials to fishmeal plants?

How did we deal with the problem of having only partial information on certain ships?

How did we assess whether fishing ships had unique vessel identification numbers?

How did we assess whether fishing ships were part of a central international database run by the FAO called the Global Record of Fishing Vessels?

How did we connect reefers to likely transshipment events involving fishing vessels?

How did we figure out the location of fisheries & the particular species that primarily supply the raw material going into the fishmeal plants?

How did we assess the health of the fisheries targeted by the fishmeal industry?

How did we calculate the fish in : fish out ratio for aquaculture species?

How did we determine which vessels were likely bottom trawling?

How did we track down how much governments were spending on subsidies?

How did we find missing or intimidated fisheries observers?

Tracing the Global Supply Chain

01–25

How is our supply chain mapping of the global fishmeal & fish oil industry novel?

How did we identify the importers purchasing fishmeal from plants of interest?

How did we connect the supply-chain dots from fishmeal importers all the way to seafood brands & grocery stores?

How did we map supply chains when the fishmeal was not exported but instead stayed in a certain country?

How did we extract non-conformity records from ASC audit reports at scale?

How did we verify the accuracy of the extracted data?

How did we assess the strength of connections from fishmeal plants all the way to major grocery chains, foodservice companies, & restaurant groups?

How did we determine the country of origin for products available at major grocery chains or foodservice companies?

How was fishmeal, as a feed ingredient, tougher to trace than seafood?

In doing supply chain analyses, what limitations did we encounter in trade data?

What other limitations exist in our supply chain tracing & Bait-To-Plate tools?

What crimes & concerns did we document across ships, plants, & other companies, & how did we classify & group those in the Bait-To-Plate tool?

How did we define Labor & Human Rights crimes & concerns for the Bait-To-Plate tool?

How did we define Fishing crimes & concerns for the Bait-To-Plate tool?

How did we define Health & Safety crimes & concerns for the Bait-To-Plate tool?

How did we define Environment crimes & concerns for the Bait-To-Plate tool?

How did we define Aquaculture crimes & concerns for the Bait-To-Plate tool?

How did we define Civil Unrest crimes & concerns for the Bait-To-Plate tool?

How did we define Piracy crimes & concerns for the Bait-To-Plate tool?

How did we define Narcotics crimes & concerns for the Bait-To-Plate tool?

How did we define Identity Opacity crimes & concerns for the Bait-To-Plate tool?

How did we define Miscellaneous crimes & concerns for the Bait-To-Plate tool?

How did we choose to rank & display retailers on the landing page of the Bait-To-Plate tool?

What was our approach to contacting companies, organizations, & others that were cited in this investigation?

How did we find contact information for the companies named in our investigation?

Applying Artificial Intelligence

01–05

How did we use machine learning & AI in our investigation?

How has AI evolved, & what concerns shaped our approach?

How did we build & deploy AI models to build a record of companies’ sustainability claims?

How did we build & deploy AI models to identify crimes & concerns?

How did we host our models & manage their environmental impact?

Mining Certifications & Sustainability Claims

01–06

What certification-type bodies did we assess, & how did we collect information about them?

How did we choose the certification programs tied to the global fishmeal or fish oil industry?

How did we interpret what a typical consumer might understand certain marketing claims to mean?

What search terms did we use to find companies’ claims, such as those tied to sustainability?

What did we learn from reviewing litigation tied to the fishmeal & fish oil industry?

In lawsuits, how did plaintiffs support their allegations that seafood companies were making false sustainability claims?

Identifying Country-Specific Research Tactics

01–21

The India Methodology Memo04

How did we build a list of fishmeal plants in India?

How did we use government documents in India to check for violations tied to specific fishmeal plants?

What organizations, newspapers, & reports were especially helpful for our research on India’s fishmeal industry?

How did we build a list of vessels supplying India’s fishmeal industry?

The Ecuador Methodology Memo04

How did we build a list of fishmeal plants in Ecuador?

How did we use government documents in Ecuador to check for violations tied to specific fishmeal plants?

What NGOs, newspapers, & media outlets were especially helpful for our research on Ecuador’s fishmeal industry?

How did we build a list of vessels supplying Ecuador’s fishmeal industry?

The Peru Methodology Memo07

What tactics did we use to determine the ownership of Peruvian fishmeal plants?

How did we use government documents in Peru to check for violations tied to specific fishmeal plants?

What NGOs & reports were especially helpful for our research on Peru’s fishmeal industry?

How did we build a list of vessels supplying Peru’s fishmeal industry?

How did we determine which vessels fished in marine protected areas?

How did we connect Peruvian fishing vessels to their owners?

How did we use government documents in Peru to check for violations tied to specific fishmeal vessels?

The Chile Methodology Memo04

How did we build a list of fishmeal plants in Chile & the vessels that supplied them?

How did we use government documents in Chile to check for violations tied to specific fishmeal plants?

How did we build a list of vessels supplying Chile’s fishmeal industry?

What organizations were especially helpful for our research on Chile’s fishmeal industry?

The Argentina Methodology Memo03

How did we build a list of fishmeal plants in Argentina?

How did we connect Argentine fishing vessels to their owners?

What government & nongovernment resources were especially helpful for our research on Argentina’s fishmeal industry?

The Mauritania Methodology Memo02

What NGO resources & news venues were especially helpful for our research on Mauritania’s fishmeal industry?

How did we build a list of vessels supplying Mauritania’s fishmeal industry?

The Senegal Methodology Memo04

How did we build a list of fishmeal plants in Senegal?

What organizations were especially helpful for our research on Senegal’s fishmeal industry?

How did we build a list of large industrial fishing vessels in Senegal?

How did we use government documents in Senegal to check for violations linked to specific vessels?

The Gambia Methodology Memo03

How did we build a list of fishmeal plants in The Gambia?

What organizations & newspapers were especially helpful for our research on The Gambia’s fishmeal industry?

How did we build a list of fishing vessels in The Gambia?

The Thailand Methodology Memo03

How did we build a list of fishmeal plants in Thailand?

What NGO resources were especially helpful for our research on Thailand’s fishmeal industry?

How did we build a list of vessels supplying Thailand’s fishmeal industry?

The Turkey Methodology Memo04

How did we build a list of fishmeal plants in Turkey?

What government & nongovernment resources were especially helpful for our research on Turkey’s fishmeal industry?

How did we build a list of vessels supplying Turkey’s fishmeal industry?

How did we check for Turkish vessels that engaged in illegal fishing?

The Indonesia Methodology Memo03

How did we build a list of fishmeal plants in Indonesia?

How did we build a list of vessels supplying Indonesia’s fishmeal industry?

How did we find complaints by workers at Indonesian fishmeal plants or on Indonesian vessels?

The Vietnam Methodology Memo04

How did we build a list of fishmeal plants in Vietnam?

How did we build a list of vessels supplying Vietnam’s fishmeal industry?

What government & nongovernment resources were especially helpful for our research on Vietnamese fishing vessels?

How did we use government documents in Vietnam to check for violations tied to specific fishmeal plants?

The Russia Methodology Memo04

How did we build a list of fishmeal plants in Russia?

How did we use government documents in Russia to check for violations tied to specific fishmeal plants?

How did we build a list of vessels supplying Russia’s fishmeal industry?

How did we find complaints by workers on Russian factory vessels?

The Philippines Methodology Memo03

How did we build a list of fishmeal plants in the Philippines?

How did we build a list of vessels supplying the fishmeal industry in the Philippines?

The Morocco Methodology Memo02

How did we build a list of fishmeal plants in Morocco?

How did we build a list of vessels supplying Morocco’s fishmeal industry?

The United States Methodology Memo05

How did we build a list of fishmeal plants in the United States?

How did we use government documents in the US to check for violations tied to specific fishmeal plants?

How did we find complaints by workers in fishmeal plants in the US?

How did we build a list of vessels supplying the fishmeal industry in the US?

What government & nongovernment resources were especially helpful for our research on the fishmeal industry in the US?

The Canada Methodology Memo04

How did we use government documents in Canada to check for violations tied to specific fishmeal plants?

How did we build a list of vessels supplying Canada’s fishmeal industry?

How did we use government documents in Canada to check for violations tied to specific fishmeal ships?

What government & nongovernment resources were especially helpful for our research on Canada’s fishmeal industry?

The Western Sahara Methodology Memo02

How did we build a list of fishmeal plants in Western Sahara & determine which countries received their products?

How did we build a list of vessels transporting fishmeal out of Western Sahara?

The Norway Methodology Memo01

How did we use government documents in Norway to check for violations tied to specific fishmeal plants?

Greece Methodology Memo02

How did we build a list of fish farms in Greece?

What reports were especially helpful for our research on the Greek aquaculture industry?

The China Methodology Memo17

How did we build our dataset of China’s fish farms?

How did we verify the locations of the farms & whether they were operating?

How did we build our dataset of China’s fishmeal & fish oil plants?

How did we map China’s fish farms & fishmeal plants?

How did we build a dataset of fish farms in Xinjiang?

How did we get a big-picture view of the recent growth of China’s fish farming industry?

How did we use government documents in China to check for legal issues tied to fish farms?

How did we use government documents in China to check for food safety violations linked to certain fish farms in Xinjiang?

How did we determine which Chinese fish farms were exporting?

How did we collect & analyze news coverage of fish farms in Xinjiang?

How did we get eyes on the daily operations of Xinjiang fish farms?

How did we use WeChat to gather more information about fish farms?

How did we pinpoint fish farms that were within 10 kilometers of detention centers or religious sites?

How did we learn more about the detention centers located near fish farms in Xinjiang?

How did we find eyewitness accounts from Uyghurs & other minorities who were imprisoned in detention centers near fish farms?

How did we illustrate how the Chinese government & academic institutions are supporting the growth of fish farming, especially in Xinjiang?

How did we find fish farms in Tibet & Qinghai?