Due to the long period of sailing in the ocean, tuna longline industry has been plagues by labour law abuses involving captive crews, cruel punishments, and mental health problems for crew who, as the IPO document suggests, can be expected to spend up to three years at sea without making land. "Labour unrest, strikes or even mutinies, which may result from unsatisfied wage demands or other factors, could prevent or hinder our normal operating activities, and, if not resolved in a timely manner, could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operation and prospects. These actions may be impossible for us to predict or control. In addition to physical demands, our crew members also face psychological pressure due to the difficulty of being away from shore for extended periods of time of up to three years..." (p41 of the draft prospectus). Such working conditions are especially prone to forced labour and human trafficking due to the difficulty in recruiting crew members (ILO, "Caught at sea: forced labour and trafficking in fisheries", 2013 (PDF)).

In general, the tuna fishing industry has high environmental impacts in both purse seine and longline fishing. Greenpeace has produced a report detailing the problems in tuna longline fishery. The report highlights issues that are endemic to this industry, such as fishery depletion, high levels of bycatch (including threatened sharks, turtle and seabird species) and high incidence of illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing.

CTI primarily fish for bigeye tuna in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean and Eastern Pacific Ocean and sell their catch to the Japanese sashimi market. There are major concerns about the health of bigeye tuna stocks. The latest scientific assessment, by the Scientific Committee of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) shows that bigeye tuna is already overfished in these areas. Despite this, the CTI draft prospectus uses 2011 stock information, and quotes an industry association that describes the WCPO bigeye tuna stock as at "a healthy level of abundance". In Greenpeace's opinion, CTI provided potential investors with a false and optimistic view of bigeye tuna stock. Their proposed expansion, which could lead to an increase the number of vessels fishing for bigeye tuna further exacerbates the threat to this species and the ecosystem as a whole. 

Greenpeace strongly believes investing in the CTI relies on a failure of regulation and governance that will lead to a complete depletion of the species.

In the CTI draft prospectus admits that the Chinese fleet has repeatedly violated the bigeye tuna catch limits allocated to China by the WCPFC. The company appears to be exploiting gaps in fisheries regulation, and basing its future revenue projection on the belief that neither the international community nor the Chinese government will improve their provisions on compliance, or impose sanctions on companies who ignore or break rules.

Given the scale of China's previous over-catches, and their already reduced bigeye longline catch limit for upcoming years, deductions could have a profound impact on the availability of future bigeye fishing opportunities for Chinese vessels, and consequently, the operations and profitability of companies like CTI.

Therefore, in Greenpeace's view, Chinese tuna companies are facing a future of either significantly reduced fishing opportunities, or complete defiance of international regulation. Both scenarios represent significant governance risks to potential investors, and raise serious integrity questions for those who support the company.