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These narratives develop a notion of unchanged and unchangeable relationships to

place and practice in the face of global sustainability policies and practices. Highlighted in

tag lines like ‘One at a time with a pole and line. We’ve never caught our tuna any other way’

(Reel Fish Co. 2016). Meanwhile new relationships are forming between the Maldives

(Maldivian fishers and fisheries, community, processing plants and government) and

international tuna companies, certifiers, scientists, campaigners and consumers. For instance,

supermarket chains such as Coles in Australia, and Sainsbury, M&S and Waitrose in the UK

now source tuna from the pole and line fishery. Greenpeace and the MSC have also

established relationships with Maldivian tuna fisheries. In 2012 MSC certified the artisanal

pole and line and handline tuna fishery as sustainable. While I do not dispute the fact that

pole and line fishing is a continuous practice, I would like to pause and consider the

particular ways that these companies and organisations are mobilising concepts of tradition.

What is the governing function of these companies and organisations? Social, technical and

economic changes that come to the Maldives in the form of eco certification standards are

likely to do more than simply add a layer on top of unchanged traditional practices. If we

think of these zones as biocultural collaborations and surfaces (conceptual approaches that I

presented earlier) then we cannot assume fishing practices exist in the background,

unchanged by these new relationships, technologies, managerial systems and standards.

Elizabeth Dunn’s notion of ‘normative forms of governmentality’, which she applies

to food standards, might shed some light on this topic (2007, p. 175). Talking about the

context of post socialist Eastern Europe, Dunn argues that standards are characteristic of the

European Union (Dunn 2007, p. 175). But standards do more than what they intend to do. In

Dunn’s case they create personhoods that evoke socialism, and consequentially encourage

people to seek out ways to circumvent the discipline brought by such standards, leading to the

flourishing of black markets (Dunn 2007, p. 175). It might help to think of eco certification

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