Opinion | Asia excels at tracking fishing vessels but fails those on board
Recent reports highlighting labour abuses aboard vessels operating in fisheries certified under internationally recognised sustainability standards have reignited debate about a critical blind spot in seafood governance. In April, the International Transport Workers’ Federation identified 80 cases o
By Yogi Putranto
Recent reports highlighting labour abuses aboard vessels operating in fisheries certified under internationally recognised sustainability standards have reignited debate about a critical blind spot in seafood governance.
In April, the International Transport Workers’ Federation identified 80 cases of labour abuse involving 72 vessels linked to 25 fisheries certified by the Marine Stewardship Council across the world, casting doubt on whether seafood sustainability efforts are paying sufficient attention to the welfare of people working at sea. As governments, retailers and regulators face growing pressure to ensure seafood is not only environmentally sustainable but also socially responsible, the gap between technological visibility and human protection is increasingly difficult to ignore.
Asia is undergoing a rapid transformation in maritime surveillance. What was once a vast and largely unobservable domain is now increasingly transparent through satellites, artificial intelligence, vessel monitoring systems and digital platforms capable of tracking fishing activity across extensive ocean spaces. Governments can now identify vessel movements, monitor fishing efforts and detect potential violations at a scale unimaginable only a decade ago.
This progress is remarkable. According to Global Fishing Watch’s 2025 Annual Report, the organisation supports monitoring across more than 73 million sq km of ocean and tracks around 500,000 vessels using satellite-based technologies and vessel tracking systems. These tools are now central to efforts to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and strengthen maritime governance across the Indo-Pacific.
However, beneath this technological achievement lies a structural paradox. States are becoming more effective at monitoring vessels but far less effective at protecting the people working aboard them. The ocean is more visible than ever, but many fishers remain largely invisible within governance systems designed to track movement rather than human conditions.
This contradiction is especially important because Asia sits at the centre of the global seafood economy. The region produces most of the world’s seafood, dominates aquaculture and supports millions of livelihoods linked directly or indirectly to fisheries. Seafood is not only a food source but also a strategic economic sector tied to employment, exports and food security.
The industry increasingly relies on a transnational workforce operating through complex recruitment chains spanning multiple countries and intermediaries. While these systems sustain global seafood production, they also fragment accountability and weaken labour protections. As a result, some fishers face risks of debt bondage, contract substitution, wage theft, document retention, excessive working hours and other forms of exploitation.
Recent evidence reinforces this concern. A study published earlier this year documents persistent cases of forced labour indicators, including contract substitution, debt bondage, confiscation of identity documents, violence, harassment and unsafe working conditions affecting migrant workers in Southeast Asia’s fishing and seafood processing sectors. Despite efforts at reform, these findings suggest structural governance gaps remain.
What makes this particularly striking is that it occurs in an era of unprecedented technological visibility at sea. Modern systems can identify vessel locations but cannot determine whether workers are paid fairly, documents are confiscated or abuse is occurring below deck. Technology reveals vessels but not human conditions.
Labour exploitation at sea is often framed as a humanitarian issue, but it is increasingly also a governance and security issue.
According to a study published in Nature Communications in 2022, research identifies significant overlap between regions with elevated risks of labour abuse and areas associated with illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Weak governance rarely affects only one sector. The same conditions that enable illegal fishing often also enable labour exploitation, trafficking and other transnational crimes.
At the same time, fishing vessels have become more than economic tools. In many contexts, they function as strategic assets through which states secure marine resources and project influence. As maritime competition intensifies and food security concerns grow, fishing fleets are increasingly viewed through a security lens, reinforcing investments in vessel tracking and surveillance.
This has created an important contradiction. Authorities can track a vessel’s location in real time across vast ocean distances, yet they know very little about the conditions experienced by its crew. Maritime transparency has expanded dramatically, but human conditions remain largely outside its scope. The core challenge facing Asia is not technological capacity but the meaning of transparency itself.
For decades, fisheries governance focused on protecting fish stocks, reducing illegal fishing and strengthening enforcement. These remain essential. However, expectations surrounding seafood production are evolving. Consumers, investors, retailers and regulators increasingly demand proof that seafood is not only environmentally sustainable but also socially responsible.
This shift brings both risk and opportunity. Countries that fail to address labour rights could face increasing scrutiny in global markets, affecting trade access and supply chain credibility. Conversely, those that integrate labour protection into fisheries governance can strengthen competitiveness and trust in their seafood sectors.
Achieving this requires recognising that fisheries governance, labour protection and maritime security are interconnected. Monitoring systems must go beyond vessel tracking to include labour conditions, recruitment practices and worker protection mechanisms. Without this integration, governance risks becoming highly sophisticated in tracking fish and vessels while remaining blind to the people who make the industry possible.
The past decade has shown that when political will, funding and technology align, maritime visibility can improve rapidly. The next step is ensuring that this visibility extends to human conditions at sea.
Asia has become highly effective at making fish and vessels visible. The defining challenge ahead is ensuring that the people working in the seafood economy become just as visible within the systems designed to govern it.