Prostitution and Pacific fishing

Fishing and prostitution might be the two oldest professions. But the exploitation of both is creating new vulnerabilities for Pacific islands as the whole world increasingly comes to fish in its waters. Ben Bohane reports from Kiribati.

The deck of the Taiwanese purse-seiner bustles with activity. At anchor a few kilometres off Tarawa in Kiribati, tons of skipjack tuna are lifted from a refrigerated hold up onto the sweltering topdeck for transhipment to a ship moored beside it. Whistles blow, nets of shimmering fish are raised and swung onto the mothership, which will take its cargo to canneries in Papua New Guinea and Taiwan.