“We were fighting over who had caught more fish, and then I saw my crewmate pushed overboard by the captain,” says Akbar Fitrian, 29, recounting an incident aboard a Chinese-owned fishing vessel in 2022. “The ship then started to drive away as my crewmate tried to swim towards us. And then I don’t know what happened. The captain never reported the incident.”
The seas of Southeast Asia—home to some of the world’s richest marine biodiversity—have been in steep decline for decades. The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates 70–95% of fish stocks in parts of the region have been depleted since the 1950s. The U.N. reports roughly half of global marine fish catch comes from Southeast Asian waters. In the United States, about 50% of imported seafood originates in Asia; nearly $6.3 billion in trade comes from China, Vietnam, Indonesia and India alone, according to NOAA. This production fuels global demand, but it comes at a calamitous cost: collapsing fish stocks, destroyed habitats, and widespread human-rights abuses.
Drivers and consequences
Industrial-scale and illegal fishing, weak regulation, poor monitoring, harmful gear like demersal trawls and purse seiners, capture of juvenile fish, and government subsidies have combined to strip coastal waters bare. Rapid maritime technology improvements let fleets find rich grounds while evading detection by turning off tracking systems. Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is pervasive and often intertwined with human trafficking, forced labor and debt bondage. Many workers recruited in fishing hubs end up trapped on vessels, abused, denied pay, or wholly unaccounted for when they go missing.
The militarization of fishing is another worrying trend. Fishing fleets, especially China’s—the largest in the world—have grown more aggressive and, in some cases, more closely tied to state maritime strategy. Fishing militias operate to assert control over waters, protect trade routes, and claim territory, using intimidation tactics that range from swarming and encircling to water cannons, lasers and ramming.
The human cost is severe: violence and coercion at sea, injuries and deaths without proper compensation, families left without recourse, and coastal communities deprived of traditional livelihoods and food security. The ecological cost: coral destruction, bycatch, declining populations of sharks, seahorses and other vulnerable species, and the degradation of ecosystems that support fisheries.
Country snapshots
Thailand
Artisanal fishers once relied on small boats and traditional practices. For generations the Urak Lawoi of Koh Lipe lived off reef and nearshore fisheries; now fish seasons are shorter and catches much smaller. Mimit Hantele, 53, says fewer species and shorter seasons have pushed locals into tourism and other work.
Large Thai and Malaysian commercial vessels began to dominate in the 1970s. Artisanal fishers accuse large boats of illegal night fishing around islands and inside protected forests, using purse seiners and trawlers that destroy coral and fish habitat. Lax oversight on destructive methods like demersal trawling and cyanide fishing, capture of juveniles, poor labor law enforcement and exploitation of migrant workers have deepened the crisis.
After fisheries reforms a decade ago helped rebuild stocks, protests erupted last year when those reforms were rolled back under industry pressure. Artisanal fishers argued deregulation would increase IUU fishing, reduce transparency and accountability, and further harm small-scale livelihoods.
Wildlife and labor impacts are visible: ghost nets entangle turtles, seahorses are traded dried for traditional medicine and protected under CITES Appendix II, and migrant crew—mostly from Myanmar—face precarious conditions despite measures like Port In Port Out (PIPO) inspections introduced in 2018. Rights groups have criticized the effectiveness of such oversight.
The Philippines
The South China Sea—also called the East Sea or West Philippine Sea—is a strategic waterway where geopolitical contest and fishing collide. Chinese fishing militias have expanded operations over two decades, sometimes serving strategic aims as much as commercial ones. Filipino fishers describe harassment by Chinese vessels that has curtailed their ability to fish offshore, slashing catches and incomes.
Donald Carmen, a fisherman off Palawan, recounts being forced away by Chinese boats that recorded and intimidated his small banca. Where he once might have caught 400–500 kilograms a night, he now returns with a fraction, and many fishers are afraid to venture far from shore. Incidents have increased since mid-2024 in areas closer to the Philippine coast, with fears that China is building presence on nearby shoals to dominate fishing grounds and trade routes.
IUU fishing, state-backed militia tactics, and the militarization of fleets threaten both food security and geopolitical stability. In the tuna hubs of General Santos, crews unload Yellowfin and Bigeye tuna for local processing and export; yet small-scale fishers still face declining catches and starker livelihoods.
Indonesia
Indonesia is both a major fishing nation and a source of labor recruited—sometimes deceptively—into distant-water fleets. Poverty and few alternatives lead thousands to accept offers that can end in debt bondage aboard foreign-managed vessels. Recruitment hubs in Central Java—Tegal and Pemalang—are cited as origins for many crew who later report abusive conditions.
Labor rights groups say hundreds of fishermen go missing each year from commercial vessels, and that many are brutalized or subject to 16–22 hour workdays, unsanitary conditions, and violence. Agencies sometimes misreport causes of death to avoid paying compensation. Families like that of Muhammed Nur—whose widow Anis was told he died of a heart attack rather than a head injury—struggle for truth and justice.
Indonesia is also a major shark market: ports like Tanjung Luar are among Southeast Asia’s largest centres where a variety of sharks and wedgefish are landed—species that are endangered or vulnerable. Shark fins and bones are exported, largely to markets in Hong Kong and China, and local consumption of meat and skins also occurs. The government has faced criticism and in recent years attempted stricter controls, but enforcement remains challenging.
Labor coercion has shifted from overt violence to debt-based systems. “There is now less physical violence and coercion—but coercion is now more debt-based,” says Rosia Wongsuban of the Freedom Fund. Crew often take loans to join vessels. Akbar Fitrian describes a 4 million Rupiah loan he received to work: one million paid for equipment, the rest kept him trapped in a cycle of borrowing and repaying that left him with little or no earnings.
Broader implications
Southeast Asia’s fisheries support nearly 10 million people directly and indirectly. Exports to markets in China, the EU and North America mean global consumer demand drives local depletion. Exports from Southeast Asia to the U.S. amount to billions annually, and fish products have become highly profitable commodities. Industrial methods—bottom trawling and purse seining—sweep vast areas indiscriminately, often subsidized by national policies that prioritize yield over sustainability.
Environmental collapse in fisheries would trigger deeper poverty, food insecurity and social instability across coastal communities. The loss of reefs and juvenile fish stocks damages the ocean’s capacity to replenish itself, and the presence of unregulated foreign fleets compounds domestic management challenges.
Paths forward
Decline is not inevitable. Experts and advocates call for stronger regional cooperation, improved monitoring and enforcement, transparent supply chains, corporate accountability, better labor protections, and informed consumer choices. Rebuilding stocks requires restrictions on destructive gear, protection of nursery habitats, curbs on illegal fishing, and sustained political will. Addressing human-rights abuses demands better recruitment oversight, legal remedies for families and survivors, and trade pressure on companies profiting from tainted supply chains.
Photography and reporting
This reporting is drawn from a nine-month investigation supported by the Fondation Carmignac. The images accompanying these accounts document landings, injured wildlife, dockside labor and the communities most affected—underscoring the intertwined ecological and human crises unfolding across Southeast Asia’s seas.
Nicole Tung is a photojournalist whose work appears in exhibits and online. The body of work this reporting draws on is on exhibit at the Bronx Documentary Center through April 26.