As news spread this month of the disappearance of fisheries observer Keith Davis aboard a Panamanian-flagged fishing vessel, many of those most familiar with the life of embedded observers on high-seas fishing expeditions were struck with the same uneasy feeling.

“It’s very suspicious,” said Hiep Tran, an experienced fisheries observer and close friend of Davis. “There are a million possibilities — a lightning bolt could have hit his head — but he was very experienced and for this to have happened on flat, calm waters is very strange.”

Tran was one of more than 20 members of the itinerant fisheries observer community in Hawaii who gathered at Magic Island on Friday to remember Davis.

“He was just a nice, nice guy,” Tran said. “He gave a lot of himself. He did a lot of work with troubled kids, just trying to make their lives better.”

Davis, 41, had been monitoring the Victoria No. 168, a Chinese trans-shipment vessel operating under a Panamanian flag, for the Marine Resource Assessment Group when he was reported missing on Sept. 10.

The boat was 500 miles off the coast of Peru and had just completed a transfer of fish from the Chung Kuo No. 818, a Taiwanese fishing vessel operating under a Vanuatu flag — a transaction that required Davis’ signature — when the crew reportedly realized that he was missing.

The U.S. Coast Guard joined Peruvian and Ecuadorian coast guard crews in an extensive but unsuccessful three-day search for Davis.

According to a CNN report, FBI and U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service personnel have been working with Panamanian officials on an investigation into the disappearance.

Fisheries observers like Davis accompany fishing vessels to document and report on the types of fish being caught, interactions with protected marine life such as turtles, fishing methods and other regulated areas. Their reports are used to enforce national and international fishing regulations but the observers themselves do not have enforcement powers.

Davis was a prominent figure in the field, having served as a board member, secretary and newsletter editor for the Association for Professional Observers from 2005 to 2012. He and current APO President Liz Mitchell have been credited with helping fisheries observers, generally employed as federal contractors, obtain whistleblower protections commensurate with regular federal employees.

According to a biography posted on the APO website, Davis, a part-time Hawaii resident, had been working as an observer since 1999, observing fishing operations in both U.S. and international waters. He also trained and debriefed observers for the National Marine Fisheries Service office in Honolulu.

While with the APO, Davis had also helped to compile what is believed to be the only archive of cases involving observers injured, killed or missing while on the job.

Philip Brown, a fisheries observer for seven years, said that while crews are generally accepting of embedded observers, it is not unusual for observers to feel imperiled after they’ve witnessed illegal activity that they would be obligated to report.

“I had a situation where I was threatened, and another when I actually thought I might be killed,” he said. “I called the Coast Guard and they told me to stay away (from the crew) but you’re out there with them for 30 days and with no protection. There’s nowhere to go.”

Brown said the reported circumstances of Davis’ disappearance seem unlikely.

“He would have had to have hit his head really hard before going overboard,” said Brown, a former ambulance driver. “Otherwise, he would have been able to swim for hours.”

Tran agreed, noting that for the transfer of fish to have occurred, the waters would have had to have been flat and the boats would have been connected and stationary.

“If he fell off, he could have simply swam to the front of the boat or called out to someone,” Tran said.

Both noted that Davis should have been wearing an flotation vest and perhaps a locator beacon, but also that it would not be unusual if he had not.

Jim McDonough, another veteran observer, said he also considered the incident “very odd,” repeating a report that David had eaten lunch with the boat’s captain just three hours before he was discovered missing.

“He was on a big, stable ship,” McDonough said. “There’s no reason why he would have been swept away.”

Like many who gathered at the park on Friday, Chris Stoehr and Erin Kiely said Davis’ disappearance caused them to reflect on the inherent danger of living on a boat for weeks or months at a time.

“I thought about every time I was on deck alone and about every little thing that can go wrong in that environment,” Stoehr said. “People love to jump to conclusions but the truth is a lot of things can happen. Small things happen. Big things happen. We just don’t know.”

Said Kiely, “We won’t ever really know what happened to Keith.”