GTA outreach officer: Tuna sustainability "shouldn't be an impossible thing to sell" in Japan

In January 2023, the Global Tuna Alliance (GTA) hired Gunther Errhalt as its first Japan outreach officer. The GTA is an independent group of retailers and tuna supply-chain companies committed to achieving more transparent, socially responsible, and environmentally sustainable tuna fisheries. The group uses its collective purchasing power to influence the policies of tuna-focused regional fisheries management organizations. Based in Haarlem, The Netherlands, GTA grew quickly in 2022, adding 29 new partners to reach 53 overall. Eighteen of the new members were from North America. The GTA is now hoping to break ground in Japan, where it currently has no partners, but where tuna is extremely popular.

In January 2023, the Global Tuna Alliance (GTA) hired Gunther Errhalt as its first Japan outreach officer. The GTA is an independent group of retailers and tuna supply-chain companies committed to achieving more transparent, socially responsible, and environmentally sustainable tuna fisheries. The group uses its collective purchasing power to influence the policies of tuna-focused regional fisheries management organizations. Based in Haarlem, The Netherlands, GTA grew quickly in 2022, adding 29 new partners to reach 53 overall. Eighteen of the new members were from North America. The GTA is now hoping to break ground in Japan, where it currently has no partners, but where tuna is extremely popular.

A U.S. Navy veteran, Errhalt previously worked as a consultant for the secretariat of the North Pacific Fisheries Commission, an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Tokyo, and on a project for Global Fishing Watch. In 2022, he formed his own company, Errhalt Consulting, also based in Tokyo. 

SeafoodSource: Your position was funded by a grant from Sea Pact, which is partnering with Seafood Legacy to set up a Japan responsible seafood roundtable. Are you looking to Seafood Legacy for contacts to recruit new members? 

Errhalt: Nothing has been formally signed with Seafood Legacy, but our goals line up perfectly. So, I’ve had meetings with [Seafood Legacy Founder] Wakao [Hanaoka] and we will be trying to collaborate on certain projects going forward throughout the year. Hopefully, more will be done at the [Tokyo Sustainable Seafood Summit] this year, and maybe we’ll set up something prior to that as well. These conversations have just begun, but we hope to have at least two tuna-related workshops this year with various Japanese stakeholders to get their opinions on furthering tuna sustainability and learning what more can still be done in Japan.

SeafoodSource: GTA also hired a director of outreach and engagement based in the U.S. How do the challenges of the job differ between Japan and the U.S.?

Errhalt: I don’t really know for certain what challenges my colleague in the U.S. will face that are different from mine, [but] I think a quite big difference in doing outreach in Japan versus Europe or the U.S. is English literacy. Most meetings will be done in English within GTA, but we are more than ready to start preparing translations, interpreters, and so on for any Japanese company that would like to join GTA. That’s how much we’re looking forward to having somebody from Japan in the organization, that we’re ready to make those extra expenses to make sure that they feel welcome. Obviously, companies from the Netherlands, Germany, or the U.K. are more likely to speak English, but it might not always be the case with Japanese companies. So, that is one challenge that I do expect us to run into – the English levels.

Another issue may be that Japan has a more risk-adverse culture, and therefore may be more initially hesitant in joining than European or American partners. But even with that being said, it’s not like sustainability is a new thing to Japan. Many organizations and companies, like Maruha Nichiro, Seafood Legacy, and other groups, are doing sustainability here. So although there may be some discomfort in joining a new organization, there shouldn't be, because we already have a lot of really big members, like Aldi and other quite big companies. So the risk should be quite low, as long as they understand that this is not a totally new thing. This is something everyone is already doing. And there’s only benefits to joining in something like this, for their organization and for the planet. I think it shouldn’t be an impossible thing to sell. It just takes a bit more time in Japan than it would take elsewhere.

SeafoodSource: For a potential member, what are the potential benefits of joining GTA?

Errhalt: Networking would be a huge one. A lot of Japanese companies probably would like to expand further [and] get to know people working in other supply chains that they can trust. I know that a fair amount of illegal fishing product does come into Japan from neighboring countries. Usufuku Honten [a fishing company based in Kesennuma, Japan] had made a comment about that to Seafood Legacy, and other companies have said that they fear labor abuse and all other types of issues that occur on neighboring countries’ fishing vessels, that [the products] are then imported into Japan and then served up on their sashimi plates. 

But if they have an international network that they know is not doing those things, then you don’t have to worry about importing from those committing labor offenses or illegally fishing within your own exclusive economic zone, or neighboring EEZs. This is the most-important thing – getting into this network, an international group who are all aimed at the same thing. I think that’s a major benefit.

SeafoodSource: What will be your other focuses as you begin your new job?

Errhalt: I think the most-important thing for me, when it comes to my consultancy in working with maritime security and fisheries, in regard to Japan, is that a lot of times in Japan there is a feeling that “I’m not doing anything wrong, so I don’t need to do more. You should talk to the people who are doing things incorrectly.”

This is true – you can look at other countries in the region that have massive illegal fishing fleets, plundering other countries’ waters and using a lot of illegal labor practices. Japan isn’t doing that as much. So why are we focusing on Japan? It’s for the reason that they’re not doing it. We need to put a stranglehold on the other countries in the region. Japan has a lot of power – a lot of soft power in fisheries, within the RFMOs, within the region. And Japan is one of the countries that will be probably the most impacted by illegal fishing if the stocks continue to go down. I think around 50 percent of Japanese protein comes from fish.

So, Japan implementing some of these policies, making them an international standard, will force those other countries to meet those same standards. It doesn’t impact the Japanese fisheries as much because they are already being better in some cases. But by you being even better, we can force them to slowly level the playing field.

So, Japan should promote policies like equipping electronic monitoring and improving transshipment practices, bring it to RFMOs, and ensure that all these other countries  are all improving in sync instead of in solitude.

SeafoodSource also interviewed GTA Executive Director Dr. Tom Pickerell; and Sea Pact Executive Director Sam Grimley , which funded Errhalt’s position. Sea Pact is, similar to the GTA, a collaboration of companies in the seafood supply chain committed to sustainable purchasing. 

SeafoodSource: In looking for Japanese partners, will you focus on retailers or producers?

Pickerell: GTA is only open to members of the supply chain, so not producers. So [Errhalt's] focus is on retail, as well as processors and suppliers. 

SeafoodSource: GTA seeks to use its purchasing leverage to influence RFMOs. What are the high-priority issues that GTA is advancing?

Pickerell: Our primary overarching issue is the adoption and implementation of comprehensive harvest strategies. Only a few stocks have these, and it’s a major reason why many tuna fisheries are struggling with sustainability. Another high priority issue is 100 percent observer coverage in industrial fleets.

SeafoodSource: Do GTA members boycott tuna from RFMOs that don’t have a GSSI-recognized certification or that are not are on a pathway to sustainability, such as those in a fishery improvement project? Or are they just encouraged to give priority to those credentialed fisheries?

Pickerell: Our five-year strategy isn’t intended to be a set of rules that must be adhered to, but rather guidance on how companies can act to improve their environmental and social performance. We don’t get involved in individual company sourcing. That’s entirely up to them. Some may choose to avoid species, fleets, or regions based on their own sourcing policies.

SeafoodSource: Why did Sea Pact give the grant to GTA?

Grimley: One of Sea Pact’s key strategic priorities is supporting sustainability improvements at a sector-level, specifically in the fresh/frozen tuna and squid sectors.  Given how important the fresh/frozen tuna sector is to the Japanese market, Sea Pact is supporting GTA’s vision to engage such an influential market and bring greater alignment of global supply chains on tuna sustainability priorities – particularly around RFMO advocacy related to harvest strategies.

SeafoodSource: Can you elaborate on the collaboration between Seafood Legacy and Sea Pact?

Grimley: The collaboration between Seafood Legacy and Sea Pact focuses on information sharing as well as identifying and aligning around sustainability goals and strategies. Sea Pact has 10 years of industry-led collaboration across its North American industry members, and the organization aims to share lessons learned and successful strategies from the organization’s design and members’ activities with Seafood Legacy as it engages Japanese seafood industry stakeholders in the seafood business precompetitive platform it is coordinating. 

Sea Pact recently identified and adopted key strategic sustainability priorities for its members to focus their sustainability efforts on, while Seafood Legacy has done the same when establishing its precompetitive platform. Both Sea Pact and Seafood Legacy are currently collaborating to identify areas of alignment across these priorities in order to have a greater impact when industry stakeholders take action on sustainability issues.  

Photo courtesy of the Global Tuna Alliance

Errhalt previously worked as a consultant for the secretariat of the North Pacific Fisheries Commission, an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Tokyo, and on a project for Global Fishing Watch. In 2022, he formed his own company, Errhalt Consulting, also based in Tokyo. 

SeafoodSource: Your position was funded by a grant from Sea Pact, which is partnering with Seafood Legacy to set up a Japan responsible seafood roundtable. Are you looking to Seafood Legacy for contacts to recruit new members? 

Errhalt: Nothing has been formally signed with Seafood Legacy, but our goals line up perfectly. So, I’ve had meetings with [Seafood Legacy Founder] Wakao [Hanaoka] and we will be trying to collaborate on certain projects going forward throughout the year. Hopefully, more will be done at the [Tokyo Sustainable Seafood Summit] this year, and maybe we’ll set up something prior to that as well. These conversations have just begun, but we hope to have at least two tuna-related workshops this year with various Japanese stakeholders to get their opinions on furthering tuna sustainability and learning what more can still be done in Japan.

SeafoodSource: GTA also hired a director of outreach and engagement based in the U.S. How do the challenges of the job differ between Japan and the U.S.?

Errhalt: I don’t really know for certain what challenges my colleague in the U.S. will face that are different from mine, [but] I think a quite big difference in doing outreach in Japan versus Europe or the U.S. is English literacy. Most meetings will be done in English within GTA, but we are more than ready to start preparing translations, interpreters, and so on for any Japanese company that would like to join GTA.  That’s how much we’re looking forward to having somebody from Japan in the organization, that we’re ready to make those extra expenses to make sure that they feel welcome. Obviously, companies from the Netherlands, Germany, or the U.K. are more likely to speak English, but it might not always be the case with Japanese companies. So, that is one challenge that I do expect us to run into – the English levels.

Another issue may be that Japan has a more risk-adverse culture, and therefore may be more initially hesitant in joining than European or American partners. But even with that being said, it’s not like sustainability is a new thing to Japan. Many organizations and companies, like Maruha Nichiro, Seafood Legacy, and other groups, are doing sustainability here. So although there may be some discomfort in joining a new organization, there shouldn't be, because we already have a lot of really big members, like Aldi and other quite big companies. So the risk should be quite low, as long as they understand that this is not a totally new thing. This is something everyone is already doing. And there’s only benefits to joining in something like this, for their organization and for the planet. I think it shouldn’t be an impossible thing to sell. It just takes a bit more time in Japan than it would take elsewhere.

SeafoodSource: For a potential member, what are the potential benefits of joining GTA?

Errhalt: Networking would be a huge one. A lot of Japanese companies probably would like to expand further [and] get to know people working in other supply chains that they can trust. I know that a fair amount of illegal fishing product does come into Japan from neighboring countries. Usufuku Honten [a fishing company based in Kesennuma, Japan] had made a comment about that to Seafood Legacy, and other companies have said that they fear lab- abuse and all other types of issues that occur on neighboring countries’ fishing vessels, that [the products] are then imported into Japan and then served up on their sashimi plates. 

But if they have an international network that they know is not doing those things, then you don’t have to worry about importing from those committing labor offenses or illegally fishing within your own exclusive economic zone, or neighboring EEZs. This is the most-important thing – getting into this network, an international group who are all aimed at the same thing. I think that’s a major benefit.

SeafoodSource: What will be your other focuses as you begin your new job?

Errhalt: I think the most-important thing for me, when it comes to my consultancy in working with maritime security and fisheries, in regard to Japan, is that a lot of times in Japan there is a feeling that “I’m not doing anything wrong, so I don’t need to do more. You should talk to the people who are doing things incorrectly.”

This is true – you can look at other countries in the region that have massive illegal fishing fleets, plundering other countries’ waters and using a lot of illegal labor practices. Japan isn’t doing that as much. So why are we focusing on Japan? It’s for the reason that they’re not doing it. We need to put a stranglehold on the other countries in the region. Japan has a lot of power – a lot of soft power in fisheries, within the RFMOs, within the region. And Japan is one of the countries that will be probably the most impacted by illegal fishing if the stocks continue to go down. I think around 50 percent of Japanese protein comes from fish.

So, Japan implementing some of these policies, making them an international standard, will force those other countries to ... 

Photo courtesy of the Global Tuna Alliance