SEH ISLAND, Cambodia -- It is late afternoon when Paul Ferber scans the horizon and detects his number one enemy -- approaching Vietnamese seine trawlers. He knows that their kilometers long, fine mesh, bottom-dragging nets will in just one or two passes sweep away years of conservation efforts. "Dolphins, turtles, tiny sea creatures, seagrass -- there's no way anything can escape,'' he says.
Operating from a remote island off the Cambodian coast, Ferber sends up a drone to track the intruders and urgently alerts a network of informants and officials. A Cambodian patrol, armed with AK-47 assault rifles, rushes out to sea under cover of darkness. The three trawlers are driven back into Vietnamese waters.
