Non-profits and news organizations have uncovered egregious human rights abuses in the seafood industry that urgently need to be addressed by both government and business.

But the problem has to be attacked in the right way if it's going to be stopped, and that means understanding how to find it.

There's a large body of evidence that Southeast Asian migration among workers in low-skilled industries such as seafood fishing is positive overall — not only for millions of migrants and their families, but also for businesses producing U.S.- and Europe-bound products. For concerned retailers and consumers who want to avoid food tainted by slavery, the question is, "merchants that treat their workers well?"

There can be thousands of migrant workers aboard fishing vessels, in small production plants, on farms, and within factories associated with the production of just a single bag of shrimp. So the first problem we have to solve is finding the human trafficking within these very complex supply chains.