A 40-year old Kiribati observer was recently found dead in his cabin on board a Taiwanese tuna purse seiner. Given the particularities of the death, the local authorities opened a murder investigation. Now, WWF claims that the death of the observer shows that the current protections for such roles are insufficient. 200% coverage would mean each vessel would have two observers, so they would not be completely alone with the crew who often do not speak their language. But, most importantly it could mean a safer environment for them; if something were to happen, they could rely on each other. Whether more – monitoring or 200% – or both – WWF representative stated that “we’re going to have to do something because clearly what we put in place before was just simply not enough.”
