The Outlaw Ocean Testifies Before Congress

We presented key findings from our current investigation focused on the global aquaculture industry and its ties for forced labor, food insecurity, illegal fishing and other issues.

Apr 17, 2026

Cross-posted by The Outlaw Ocean Project

"I'm in album-release mode ( https://revkin.substack.com/t/andy-music ), so I will be trying to draw your attention to vital work being done by others. I hope you have watched my Sustain What webcasts with my onetime New York Times colleague Ian Urbina on his Outlaw Ocean project. You can catch one here: https://revkin.substack.com/p/a-journalism-project-reveals-perils But don't miss what he lays out in this post. He and his team are doing remarkable work shedding light on misbehavior in the biggest blind spot in the world - the oceanic commons. Independent journalism matters. Subscribe and support him! "

- Andy Revkin

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) is a bi-partisan body that is a long-running hybrid creation of the White House and Congress, focused on all matters concerning China. Yesterday, it held a hearing that generally examined forced labor in China’s seafood production. They asked The Outlaw Ocean Project to present the findings of its new investigation. The last time we testified before Congress was in 2023 about our last investigation.

You can watch the testimony we gave here:

In the hearing, I shared some preliminary findings from our upcoming “Food for Feed” investigation, which examines the global fishmeal and aquaculture industries and reveals various labor and environmental abuses within supply chain of the global aquaculture industry. The investigation was conducted by a team of more than two dozen reporters from as many countries as we looked at roughly 1,400 fishmeal plants worldwide. We inspected vessels supplying these plants, traced the feed’s destination, and tracked where the seafood ends up.

The hearing focused on the China portion of our findings: 1200 fish farms in Xinjiang and Tibet, an area representing the fastest-growing segment of China’s fish farming industry. We also discussed the fact that seafood from fish farms in Xinjiang is being exported to the US in violation of federal law. Furthermore, the US-based firm, BAP, has in some cases, certified these farms, despite the ban on any products tied to this region.

The full hearing is here.