While human presence has touched almost every corner in this planet, the world’s oceans will always remain the unsolved mystery: Too big to explore, and, most importantly, too big to regulate.
Under no clear authority, the ocean constitutes a fertile terrain for criminality and exploitation: Trafficking, smuggling, piracy, illegal fishing and many others. Have you ever wondered how cruel life on the high seas can be for workers, as the inhabitants of an unseen world?
A recently released book, entitled ‘The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier’, serves as a stunning exposé and an adrenaline-fueled tour on the oceans’ sinful secret: How humans abuse not only seas, but also other humans, in a place where anyone can do anything because no one is watching.
Written by Ian Urbina, an investigative reporter in New York Times with over 20 years of experience and winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News, these pages result from a five-year research in a journey across 5 seas and 14 countries in Africa, Asia, the Mediterranean, South America, and the Middle East.
Attempting to expose, both the weakness of international maritime law and the inability of developed countries to perceive the scale of the problem, the ‘Outlaw Ocean’ provides exactly what it promises: An adventurous read regarding a dystopic place, but also a well-written insight into the deepest aspects of humanity itself.
In a bid to close the reporting gap in about two-thirds of the Earth’s surface, the book is building uniquely the portraits of scofflaws, vigilantes and activists, unveiling the everyday reality of sea slavery and shocking the reader with how global indifference can make the ocean a danger zone and trap innocent people in exploitation.
As such, the Outlaw Ocean is addressed to any sea worker or landlubber, any human interested to meet a hidden but real world. Do not ambition a pleasant, light story. The author may dress his story telling with the perks of a fantasy movie, but ultimately, the book serves accurately the goal of investigation reporting: The ugly truth of a disturbing world.
5 common human rights abuses in maritime and fishing industry
- Forced labor
- Excessive working hours and low wages
- Bullying or harassment
- Abandonment
- Piracy threat
Did you know? UN estimates that there are currently 43 million commercial fishers worldwide, supporting 520 million people – 7.3% of the world’s population.