Red Lobster Ethical Issues

This article is about how the suppliers to a company can generate negative publicity for the company. In this case we look at the restaurant chain Red Lobster. It is a major seafood franchise chain with over 670 restaurants. They offer lobster at very good prices with a goal of having a dish like lobster priced so that all can enjoy it. This has greatly increased the demand for lobster. Many of the suppliers namely in the Mosquito Coast have not treated divers fairly and forced them to work under horrible conditions. Due to the over consumption of lobster in these villages’ divers has been forced to deeper waters in search of lobster. There once was a point in time when divers could wade out into the water to catch them, now they go on
The people have little or no other alternative ways or substitutes to making money. The people in the village have a couple of options, prostitution, drug smuggling, or diving for lobster. Unfortunately all of which of terrible risks. The people that opt to make an honest buck now run the risk of being stricken with a deadly disease known as the bends. After numerous deep dives multiple times a day symptoms appear quickly. Within no time the bends worsens with more diving and eventually the divers become paralyzed. Unable to work the divers lie down and wait to die. Even worse if they become paralyzed on the boat the boat doesn’t return to shore, and the crew can even vote on whether they keep the diver on board or toss him over board. It very common for boats to return from a dive with less people then it went out with. Another unethical dilemma is that the boat captains do nothing to compensate the families of dead or paralyzed divers. And governments have done nothing to prevent the miss treatment of the divers and the over fishing of lobster off their coast. The stake holders involved in this case are the divers who are the most obvious as well as the lobster population whose number continue to decrease as the demand for cheap lobster increases. Business all along the red lobster supply chain, which would include the boaters, the preparers and red lobster restaurants. Members of the diver’s
With better working conditions the divers will be less prone to the bends. This will help the families because they will be less worried about losing a member as well as having to take care of them and finding a means of compensating for wages lost. It affects the boaters because now they are having more responsibility to the divers in making sure they are safer and have proper equipment. This could cost the boaters more because they have to spend money to get new equipment and have to return to shore if a diver shows signs of bends. Another alternative would be to invest in creating lobster farms. This is what was done with the shrimp industry and majority of shrimp consumed now is grown in farms. These are large pools where the shrimp grown are harvested when large enough. This however completely cuts out the divers as well as the boaters. They will now suffer an income loss. But on the lighter side the lobster population in those will now be given a chance to repopulate. This could also be used alongside season diving. Divers can search for lobster during a certain season and make money that way and once the season is over restaurants can be supplied lobster from lobster farms. Red lobster can also raise the price of their lobster. This will restrict the amount of lobster people consume and restrict the demand for boaters to go out and get lobsters. However this will cause possible