Seventy per cent of the Earth's surface is covered by oceans, and the vastness of the sea may lead people to believe that seafood is an inexhaustible resource. However, this is far from the truth! Take the Southern Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus maccoyii) as an example. Due to overfishing, its population began declining in the 1950s, with numbers plummeting by 90 per cent at one point, causing it to be classified as "critically endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). However, in recent years, the population has slowly been recovering, and in 2021, its conservation status was updated from "critically endangered" to "endangered", making it one of the few species with a glimmer of hope in conservation efforts. And the ones responsible for averting the threat of extinction for the Southern Bluefin Tuna are a group of fishery observers from around the world.
With the advancement of modern fishing technology, fishing vessels can venture into farther waters, and there are also better techniques for preserving catches. As a result, the fishing range of vessels has become wider and wider. To increase profits from each voyage, many fishing vessels engage in mass netting, keeping only the high-value seafood, and discarding low-value catches that are already dead back into the sea. Some fishermen even cut off the fins of sharks they catch before throwing the still-living sharks back into the sea, to make room on the vessel for storing more valuable fins. These profit-driven fishing practices have severely disrupted the balance of marine ecosystems.
Emerging Professions
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, each coastal country or region has a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone. To protect their fishing resources and ecosystems, many countries establish fishing quotas and regulate the capture of endangered species within their exclusive economic zones. However, in economically disadvantaged areas, local fishermen may lease or sell their fishing quotas to foreign vessels in order to earn a higher income.
Whether it is their own citizens fishing in the country's designated maritime zones or third parties fishing under quota arrangements, it is necessary for many countries to impose measures to ensure the continuous development of their fishing resources. However, given the vastness of the sea, monitoring fishing activities for compliance is not easy, thus giving rise to the profession of fishery observers.
Many countries hire workers to accompany fishing vessels, recording the locations and frequencies of net deployments, and whether prohibited species are caught. Some also conduct scientific research simultaneously, recording data on the sizes, health conditions, and spawning conditions of the captured fish. If violations are detected during monitoring, fishery observers are required to gather evidence and report them to law enforcement authorities. Violators of fishing regulations may face fines or even have their licences revoked.
Dead or Missing
However, it is foreseeable that fishing vessels found violating regulations often will not sit around and await their punishments. Bribery and intimidation are commonplace for many fishery observers, whose death and disappearance are not uncommon occurrences as well. According to data from the "Association for Professional Observers", in the past 15 years since 2009, at least 17 observers have died or gone missing while on duty.
To ensure the safety of observers, observers in the United States have been equipped with more advanced distress and communication devices in recent years. However, for observers from resource-strapped island nations, every voyage may very well be their last!