www.bbc.com
Keith Davis: He was protecting the oceans - then he disappeared
The death of an American fishing observer hundreds of miles from shore has shone a light on a hidden world.
Local
Keith Davis disappeared at sea thousands of miles from home. His body has never been found. Now the mystery of his death has shone a light on a maritime world that is largely hidden from view, writes Rachel Monroe.
At my local grocery store in Texas, I can buy a can of tuna for less than a dollar. But, like many things that seem inexpensive, those low prices are only possible because of dangerous and largely invisible work happening far away - work that most of us will never know about.
Davis, an idealistic and adventure-loving ukulele player from Arizona, worked to make the invisible world of commercial tuna fishing visible. And he may have paid a price for it.
"He was very impulsive, very romantic, fly by the seat of his pants," said Anik Clemens, his friend and colleague. "He was so passionate about what he did. He wanted to protect the oceans, he wanted to protect the fishermen and their industry."
In 2015, in the midst of a seemingly routine voyage on the Victoria 168, part of a tuna fleet owned by a Taiwanese conglomerate, the 41-year-old vanished hundreds of miles off the coast of Ecuador.
The crew searched the ship, but found no sign of him. As word of his disappearance trickled back to his friends and colleagues on the mainland, many were instantly suspicious.
"He had 16 years of service. And there was no question in my mind that he was as professional and as careful and safe as anyone could be," said Bubba Cook, Davis's friend and the Western and Central Pacific Tuna Programme Manager for the World Wildlife Fund.
"The inevitable conclusion is that something had to have happened to him. To this day, I'm convinced that he saw something that the people that were on that vessel didn't want him to see."
Looking into his disappearance for new BBC podcast Lost At Sea led me into a fascinating world.