Lives on the line for observers of the Pacific fishery

06:02 am on 6 July 2020

Year in and year out Pacific fisheries observers work in dangerous and often hostile environments on board foreign fishing vessels in the region holding them to account and helping protect the region's fish stocks and oceans.

But who is protecting them?

Since 2010 there are at least 10 known cases of observers going missing, killing themselves and even being murdered aboard foreign fishing vessels in the Pacific.

Each time it has happened authorities ask questions and promise to make things safer for them.

But very little concrete action has been taken so far, as Koroi Hawkins reports.

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A Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority officer crosschecks for suspicious vessel behaviours identified in the Vessel Monitoring System (map on the lower left) with Logbooks, catch logsheets, temperature records, etc. found on board. Photo: Francisco Blaha