Searching for Keith

The Search for Keith Continues

Before Keith Davis, a fisheries observer from the United States, vanished from a tuna boat under suspicious circumstances way out in the Pacific, a horrifying video of men being shot to death as they tread water in the Indian Ocean captured his attention. Sarah Tory pointed out in her 2017 feature story, “The Mysterious Disappearance of Keith Davis,” that Davis shared the video with his friends as evidence of the lawlessness observers confront on the high seas. He wouldn’t have known, of course, that on the other side of the world a detective would soon be poring over the exact same footage and investigating who was responsible—or, that in a grim twist, that the same detective would one day investigate his own alleged murder.

In her follow-up feature story, “Searching for Keith,” published this week, Tory goes on a quest with the detective to try and learn more about the clandestine operation that may have claimed Davis as a casualty.

The observer’s plight—expressed through Tory’s skilled writing—provides a portal into the bleak realities of what goes down on some fishing boats, far from the reach of authorities. Illegal fishing is, sadly, only one dimension of a multifaceted problem. I never met Davis, but he’s occupied many of my thoughts over the past months. If you’re like me, these stories are going to haunt you.

Shanna Baker
Senior editor

This Week’s Stories

Searching for Keith

A detective’s quest reveals how one idealistic fisheries observer may have collided with criminals and desperate migrants—and paid for it with his life.

by Sarah Tory • 6,100 words / 31 mins

Gastrophysicists Are Using an Audiovisual Experience to Make Jellyfish More Appetizing

Jellyfish are emerging as a sustainable seafood option, but can Westerners be convinced to indulge in this tasteless delicacy?

by David Adam • 700 words / 3 mins

The Cure to the Tragedy of the Commons? Cooperation

When fishers communicate openly, coral reefs win.

by Steve Murray • 400 words / 2 mins

Killifish Eggs Can Survive Being Eaten

A fish egg hatched after passing through a swan’s digestive tract. The discovery lends credence to the idea that birds help fish spread to far-off lands.

by Richa Malhotra • 500 words / 2 mins

The Benefits of Marine Protected Areas Spill into Neighboring Waters

A new genetic analysis demonstrates the spillover effect in action, showing that fish leave marine protected areas for fishable waters.

by Alastair Bland • 750 words / 3 mins

What We’re Reading

This year, European Fish Dependence Day—the day when the European Union has consumed all its fish resources and must start relying on imports—arrived on July 9. Thirty years ago, domestic supplies lasted through to September or October. (The Maritime Executive)

What happens when you build a tourism economy around a single species that starts being a no-show? (Mongabay)

Those beaches of rotting seaweed in the Caribbean are probably the new normal. (The Atlantic)

The Swiss Mediterranean Shipping Company just took delivery of the world’s largest container ship. Built in South Korea, the 400-meter-long ship can carry 23,756 containers. (World Maritime News)

The sex-filled crab migration of Christmas Island. It’s a quickie. (Topic Magazine)

Coccolithophores are one of the most abundant types of phytoplankton in the world’s oceans. They alter ocean chemistry, help store carbon dioxide, fuel food chains, and “shimmer so brightly that they can shield the ocean from the sun’s incoming radiation.” And they’re beautiful, too. (Knowable Magazine)

In Washington State, the United States Navy scraped copper-laced paint and barnacles from the hull of a decommissioned aircraft carrier and dumped it into the Salish Sea. Now they’re getting sued. (Cascadia Daily)

Jan Weir of Nanaimo, British Columbia, sent us this photo from her favorite coastline. The photo was taken on the archipelago of Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, at a heritage cultural site called K’uuna Llnagaay (Skedans) on Louise Island. Jan writes: The fallen, horizontal pole on the ground has become a base for a living Sitka spruce. The slanted pole to the right still shows carvings that represent human, animal, and supernatural figures. It was an honour to visit this sacred site. Skedans is a place of peace and connection to the earth. (Jan notes that the Canadian artist Emily Carr visited K’uuna Llnagaay and her images give a sense of how the poles once looked.)

In Coastal Exposures, readers share their best shots of a favorite stretch of coastline. To submit your photo, tag it on Instagram with #hakaiCE or just reply to this email. Please provide the location, a brief story behind the photo, and the largest file size you have. Horizontal photos are best. Note that your story may be edited for length.

Question: The southern resident killer whales of the northeast Pacific recently had some good news—a new calf has been sighted with J pod. What have researchers named the baby? Bonus points for the name of her mother.

Click here to tweet your answer to @hakaimagazine.

As before, there’s no prize, just the glory of winning. Extra points and cheers in the office for humor, sarcasm, and extra details.

And congratulations to Annick Bischoff, who was the first to send in the correct answer to the question from last week’s quiz: What animal recently took an epic, and thought to be unprecedented, trip on foot from Norway to Canada? The world traveler was an Arctic fox. It took the young female 76 days to make the 3,500-kilometer trek.

Behind the Story

To learn more about smuggling networks spanning the Americas for this week’s feature story, “Searching for Keith,” Colorado-based writer Sarah Tory followed the path of migrants into dangerous territory.

Reporting in Capurganá, a small Colombian village near the Panama border that’s accessible only by boat, was the only time I’ve felt a twinge of fear while on assignment. On the surface, Capurganá looks like any other beach town—cheap hostels, smoothie stalls, and tour operators offering boat rides up the coast, all catering to a mix of gringo tourists and Colombian vacationers.

But Capurganá is not just another beach town. It borders the Darién Gap, a notoriously wild and lawless jungle spanning the sliver of land that connects South and Central America between Colombia and Panama. The area is a known cocaine smuggling corridor controlled by a powerful drug cartel called the Urabeños, and numerous smaller criminal gangs. In recent years, Capurganá has also become a hub for underground migrants traveling across South and Central America en route to the United States.

One day, we walked down a cart track from Capurganá to a small village in the jungle, hoping to talk to some migrants who were trying to make it through the Darién Gap into Panama. When we reached the village, our guide, a journalist from Turbo, nervously told us that it was not safe for us to linger—there were men linked with the local criminal gangs in the vicinity who were watching us; that we should leave before nightfall. It was a strange feeling, to know you’re being watched, while at the beach just a 30-minute walk away, tourists were sipping cocktails and frolicking in the turquoise water.

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