At least eight people have died after two fishing boats capsized off the coast of San Diego, California, in an apparent migrant smuggling operation, emergency officials said on Sunday.

San Diego emergency crews began a search and recovery operation late Saturday night, after receiving a 911 call from a Spanish-speaker about fishing boats in distress off the coast of San Diego’s Black’s Beach.

Crews arrived to find two fishing boats capsized in a 400-foot (366 m) area, and eight bodies were recovered from the water and the beach, San Diego Fire-Rescue Lifeguard Division Chief James Gartland said.

“This is one of the worst smuggling tragedies that I can think of in California, certainly here in the city of San Diego,” Gartland said.

Officials did not know the nationalities of the victims but told reporters that they were all adults.

Hazardous weather conditions likely contributed to the danger of the maritime smuggling operation, and also hindered rescue efforts overnight, officials said. The U.S. Coast Guard and the San Diego Fire-Rescue Lifeguard division were still involved in the recovery operation late Sunday morning.

Eric Lavergne, special operations supervisor with the U.S. Border Patrol in San Diego, said this was one of a few hundred migrant smuggling events recorded in his jurisdiction this fiscal year, which is on track with the rate in recent years.

These have included incidents of migrants swimming, traveling by surfboard or taking panga fishing boats to cross into the U.S., he said.

SHETLAND, UK — On the edge of a coastal pool on one of Scotland’s Shetland Islands, Pixie, a plump grey seal grunts and rolls towards the water to retrieve a fish that’s been left for its lunch.

Pixie is one of hundreds of rescued seals, many of which were sick and emaciated from ingesting food and sea water contaminated by micro plastics and chemicals when they arrived at a sanctuary on the north coast of the main island.

Others had severe neck wounds from getting entangled by plastic straps or fishing nets.

Pete and Jan Bevington — who run the sanctuary at Hillswick, a village north of Shetland’s main town, Lerwick — say pollution is taking its toll on seal populations on the archipelago, known for its rugged coastlines, dramatic cliffs and diverse wildlife.

“It used to be a lot easier to look after seals,” Pete Bevington, 70, told AFP.

“They came in bigger, they came in stronger, they came in more resilient. Now it’s much harder work to keep them alive. We’re losing more than we used to.”

According to a report by the UK government’s Environment Agency, published in January, climate change impacts have been linked to the increased release of hazardous chemicals washed in from water bodies and sewers.

Those chemicals can include polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which although banned in the mid-1980s still find their way into the marine environment through the destruction and disposal of industrial plants and old equipment.

An increasingly common problem seen by the sanctuary is entanglement wounds.

“They get stuck with plastic straps around their neck and they can’t free themselves from it,” Pete Bevington said.

“The seal grows, but the plastic doesn’t. You see more and more seals with neck wounds here.”

Fattest seal

Pods of orcas, most likely from Iceland, that have been hunting Shetland’s shores in increasing numbers in search of new feeding grounds, were also hitting seal populations.

“Killer whales are turning up more than they used to,” he said.

“We assume that’s because they are not getting the food supply that they were getting elsewhere before.

“Everybody loves to see Orcas but it does put an added pressure on the seal population.”

The sanctuary has rehabilitated hundreds of animals since is was founded by Jan Bevington, 76, in 1987 when she came across a sickly seal washed up on a nearby beach.

“I didn’t know what to do with it so I rang around England and Scotland and found out what to do and that’s what started the whole thing off,” she said.

Covering Shetland’s vast 1,500-mile coastline is challenging, but the Bevingtons have established a network of trained volunteers around the archipelago to help them rescue seals and otters.

“We rehydrate them, we keep them warm, we let them rest and then we feed them up,” Pete Bevington said.

The couple admit to becoming attached to some of their rescues, all of which are christened with a new name, but they remain mindful of not interfering with nature.

Their job is to undo the harm done by man.

So returning animals like Pixie — now at over 60 kg (132 pounds) officially the sanctuary’s fattest seal — to their natural environment is a joyful experience.

“When they’re about 40 kilos, 50 kilos we let them go out into the wild,” Pete Bevington said with a shrug.

“After that, they’re on their own.”

Vietnam’s economy rocketed up 8% last year as manufacturers like Samsung Electronics, LG and Hon Hai Precision Industry powered exports.

Now overseas demand is slumping amidst a local credit crunch and a corruption crackdown. Weak internal demand leaves the country without much of a hedge.

Vietnam has long served as a cheap alternative to China for companies outsourcing production.

A trade agreement and warmer relations with Washington spared its manufacturers from tariffs and sanctions applied to its northern neighbour.

A combination of low labour costs and proximity to more sophisticated Chinese supply chains is alluring too. 

Foreign investment rose 13.5% to $22 billion last year as companies slapped “Made in Vietnam” on electronics, clothing and sneakers.

At $372 billion, gross export earnings now equate to a whopping 90% of output last year, government data shows; of its neighbours, only oil-producer Malaysia has ever approached such a level.

Now overseas demand is stuttering. The country lacks China’s enormous consumer market; gross national income per capita was around $3,600 in 2021, compared to $12,000 in the People’s Republic.

While Vietnamese workers are more youthful than China’s, they are older than peers in Indonesia and India, so the country’s labour-cost competitiveness may not last.

In that context, signs of domestic stress are worrying. A long-running corruption crackdown should yield long-term benefits.

It is disruptive now, however: paralysing the bureaucracy, trickling into the real estate sector and rattling the benchmark stock index.

The campaigns have targeted business executives and thrown a wrench in supply chains including pharmaceuticals.

Manufacturers have lost some enthusiasm. The world’s largest maker of branded sports shoes, Pou Chen, said last month it would cut some 6,000 jobs in Ho Chi Minh City, just two years after complaining it couldn’t find enough workers.

Political turbulence may be discouraging new money too. Registered foreign direct investment capital fell 38% in the first seven weeks of the year.

Most of Vietnam’s neighbours, including China, reduced their dependence on exports by developing dynamic private enterprises that moved up the value chain and hiked wages: a virtuous cycle.

However, the Party’s predilection for concentrating investment in inefficient state entities will serve it ill, especially if FDI keeps cooling.

If Hanoi really wants to compete with Beijing, it might have to change its ways.