“We argued about who had caught more, and then I watched the captain push my crewmate overboard,” recalls Akbar Fitrian, 29, describing a 2022 episode aboard a Chinese-managed fishing boat. The vessel steamed away as the man tried to swim back; the captain never reported what happened.
The waters of Southeast Asia—long among the world’s most productive and biodiverse—have been hollowed out over decades. The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that 70–95% of fish stocks in parts of the region have been depleted since the 1950s. The United Nations says roughly half of the world’s marine fish catch comes from Southeast Asian seas. In global markets this matters: about half of the seafood the U.S. imports originates in Asia, and NOAA places trade from China, Vietnam, Indonesia and India to the U.S. at nearly $6.3 billion. High demand has helped grow fleets and output, but it has also driven ecological collapse, ruined habitats and enabled widespread labor abuses.
What’s driving the collapse?
Industrial-scale fishing, weak regulation and poor monitoring, destructive gears such as bottom trawls and purse seines, the capture of juveniles, and large subsidies have combined to strip coastal waters. New navigation and detection technologies let fleets locate fish quickly and sometimes avoid oversight by switching off tracking. Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is pervasive and often linked to human trafficking, forced labor and debt bondage: crew recruited at coastal hubs can end up trapped, unpaid, abused or simply missing.
Fishing has become increasingly militarized. The world’s largest fleet, China’s, has grown aggressive; state-aligned fishing militias now patrol and contest waters. Tactics range from swarming and encirclement to water cannons, lasers and ramming—measures that intimidate local fishers, assert control over routes and help claim maritime advantage.
The toll is both human and ecological: violence, coercion, injury and unexplained deaths at sea with little accountability; communities losing traditional livelihoods and food security; reefs and nursery habitats shredded by trawls; large-scale bycatch; and steep declines in sharks, seahorses and other vulnerable species.
Country snapshots
Thailand
Artisanal fishers who once worked small boats and seasonal patterns have seen catches shrink and seasons shorten. Indigenous groups like the Urak Lawoi on Koh Lipe—who depended for generations on nearshore reefs—have shifted toward tourism as fish stocks dwindle. Since the 1970s, large Thai and Malaysian commercial vessels have dominated waters. Artisanal fishers accuse bigger boats of illegal night fishing near islands and inside protected areas using purse seines and trawls that crush coral and habitat.
Lax enforcement on destructive methods—demersal trawling, cyanide fishing—and weak labor protections have worsened impacts on both wildlife and people. After fisheries reforms had begun to rebuild stocks, recent rollbacks under industry pressure sparked protests by small-scale fishers worried deregulation would increase IUU fishing and reduce transparency. The consequences are visible: ghost nets entangle turtles, seahorses are dried for traditional medicine (seahorses are listed under CITES Appendix II), and migrant crews—many from Myanmar—remain vulnerable despite Port-In-Port-Out (PIPO) inspections introduced in 2018.
The Philippines
Where geopolitics meets fisheries—the South China Sea, known locally as the West Philippine Sea—Chinese fishing militias have expanded over two decades, sometimes operating with strategic aims as well as commercial ones. Filipino fishers describe harassment and intimidation that has pushed them closer to shore and sharply reduced catches.
Donald Carmen, a fisherman off Palawan, says Chinese vessels have recorded and forced his small banca away; where he once hauled hundreds of kilograms a night, he now returns with a fraction and fears venturing far. Since mid-2024 there have been more incidents nearer the Philippine coast, heightening concerns that a growing presence on nearby shoals could lock out local fishers and stress regional stability. In tuna hubs such as General Santos, crews still land Yellowfin and Bigeye tuna for processing and export, but small-scale fishers face shrinking returns and increasingly precarious livelihoods.
Indonesia
Indonesia is a major fishing nation and a source of seafarers recruited—sometimes deceived—into distant-water fleets. Poverty and limited alternatives push many toward contracts that become debt bondage. Recruitment hubs in Central Java are noted origins for crews who later report abusive conditions.
Labor groups document hundreds of fishermen going missing annually from commercial vessels, and survivors describe 16–22 hour workdays, unsanitary conditions, beatings and misreported causes of death that deny families compensation. The family of Muhammed Nur, whose widow Anis was told he died of a heart attack rather than from blunt trauma, illustrates the struggle for truth and justice.
Indonesia is also a major center for shark landings. Ports such as Tanjung Luar handle large volumes of sharks and wedgefish—many species that are endangered or vulnerable—whose fins and parts are exported to markets in Hong Kong and China while local markets consume meat and skins. The government has tried to tighten controls, but enforcement remains uneven.
Labor coercion has shifted toward 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. Many crew take loans to pay recruitment fees; Akbar says a 4 million rupiah loan he took—one million to buy equipment—left him trapped in cycles of borrowing with little pay.
Wider implications
Nearly 10 million people in the region rely on fisheries directly or indirectly. Exports to China, the EU and North America mean global consumers are linked to local depletion. Industrial fishing methods sweep broad areas indiscriminately and are often supported by subsidies and policies prioritizing short-term yield over long-term sustainability.
If fisheries collapse continues, coastal poverty and food insecurity will deepen, and social instability could follow. Reef loss and the removal of juvenile fish undermine the ocean’s ability to recover. Unregulated foreign fleets and weak domestic capacity compound the governance challenge.
Paths forward
Decline is not inevitable. Solutions pushed by experts and advocates include stronger regional cooperation, better monitoring and enforcement, transparent supply chains and corporate accountability, improved labor protections, and consumer awareness. Rebuilding stocks takes curbs on destructive gear, protection of nursery habitats, tackling illegal fishing, and sustained political will. Addressing human-rights abuses requires oversight of recruitment, legal remedies for families and survivors, and trade pressure on companies profiting from tainted supply chains.
Photography and reporting
This account draws on a nine-month investigation supported by the Fondation Carmignac. The accompanying photographs document landings, injured wildlife, dockside labor and affected communities, highlighting how ecological decline and human suffering are tightly intertwined across Southeast Asia’s seas. Photojournalist Nicole Tung’s body of work from this reporting is on exhibit at the Bronx Documentary Center through April 26.