Lifecycle of Pacific Bluefin Tuna: Tuna, a species at the top of the marine food chain.Pacific Ocean Fishing Routes: Using Global Fishing Watch’s real-time map to extract and study the footprint of a Taiwan-registered fishing vessel for the last three years.From the Ocean to the Table: From tuna’s perspective, recording the process from longline fishing, freezing, processing, to canning and wholeselling.Tracing the Global Network: Case study of global capital FCF, without owning fishing boats, purchases tuna globally and manages distribution, processing, and transportation.Pacific Ocean Fishing Routes: Using Global Fishing Watch’s real-time map to extract and study the footprint of a Taiwan-registered fishing vessel for the last three years.Longline Fishing Method: This method, setting lines at fixed intervals, creates miles-long ‘walls’ in the ocean, indiscriminately capturing marine life and often resulting in bycatch like sharks and seabirds.Section of Fishing Vessel: For distant-water fishing, the vessel is both a workplace and a living space. These independent boats, in the vast ocean, operate continuously, extracting valuable tuna.From Distant Island to Distant Water: A typical fishing story from the perspective of a foreign worker on the distant-water fishing vessel.Marginalized Fishing Ports and Settlements: Most fishing ports are located along the coastline, serving different fishing operations based on their hinterland, resources, and facilities. These marginalized port facilities often become the living spaces for foreign workers.Liquid Urbanism: In the absence of private housing, foreign workers often resort to using the vessel itself as their primary living space, leading to the formation of unique informal settlements along the peripheries of ports.
Zhi Ray Wang (he/him) is a Researcher and Architect based at MIT. He is a SMArchS Urbanism Candidate (‘25) and works at the intersection of urban studies, architectural design, and building technology. For more of Ray’s work, see his personal website.
