The Watchers was the term given to an organization that existed on the planet Morassia that were tasked with the maintenance and protection of the Preserve on the Morassian homeworld.
Their mission goal was to preserve different animal species from across known space and deposit them on a special sanctuary on their home planet in order to protect them in a tighly controlled environment. This meant that they were the only ones that could put ID tags on the animals during their shipment to Morassia. The Watchers were described as being fanatical in their goal and were zealous in collecting rare specimens. They were accused of only following the care instructions that they were given and showed no personal initiative when looking after the animals. In order to protect the creatures of the Preserve, the Morassians prevented anyone from wielding weapons on the surface. When facing the animals themselves, the Watchers made use of stunners that did not trigger the Preserves alarms.
It was known that on several occasions, the Watchers had requested restricted species being transferred to the Preserve but were denied. At some point in the mid 24th century, the Watchers had hired the Ferengi trader Aramut to deliver new species to the Preserve - an act which caused some problem with the Federation as some of the species being imported were illegal. In 2370, an Away Team from the USS Enterprise visiting Morassia were involved in the investigation of the disappearance of a Federation scientist Dr. Vi Hyunh-Foertsch. During their time there, they encountered the Preserve's Consultant Iydia who expressed his disatisfication with the Watchers by referring to them as being little more then "glorified zookeepers". (TNG video game: A Final Unity)