Mother Ocean: The Last Frontier

By Fran Withrow 06.2020

The current pandemic knocked my brain so off kilter that for several weeks I could not comprehend what I was reading. Night after night I perused the same five pages or so. But at last I found a book so compelling I was forced to pay attention: “The Outlaw Ocean.”

You are likely already familiar with the “outlaws” confronting our oceans. We’ve heard about piracy, overfishing, illegal fishing, water pollution, and generally acting like the ocean is both a limitless resource and a convenient garbage dump. However, author Ian Urbina opened my eyes even further to ways we abuse the vast waters that cover most of the earth.

Urbina is fearless reporter for The New York Times who travels the world in search of a story. For this book, he does a little of everything. He willingly joins an international conservation police force chasing down an illegal fishing boat. He witnesses potentially dangerous altercations between ships of different nations. He observes the plight of sea slaves and talks with those struggling to rescue them. His findings are truly insightful. 

Little did I know that policing the seas is almost impossible. The watery boundaries between various nations can be difficult to determine. Boats can change flags easily, making them harder to find if they are working outside the parameters of the law. And laws vary from nation to nation, adding further challenges.

While piracy, unsustainable fishing practices, and pollution are problems, an equally disturbing but lesser known issue is sea slavery. Young men desperate for money pay an agency to get them a job on a fishing boat. There they may work for years to pay back the agencies and make some money for themselves. They are frequently subject to abuse, even locked in boat holds to prevent them from jumping ship. That fish you ate for supper last night? There are a multitude of reasons they are not dramatically more expensive, and one is cheap labor from sea slaves.

Sometimes boats run out of money and are abandoned in a harbor somewhere. The crew, stranded with no money, is stuck. Who pays to get them home? Nobody wants that responsibility. And if a ship needs costly repairs, it might be easier to sink it than to get it fixed.

Cruise ships are problem too, for many reasons, just one of which is how some of them quietly expel their sewage into the ocean rather than pay to get rid of it legally.

The oddest chapter of all is one about the Bates family, who “conquered” an abandoned British anti-aircraft platform in 1966 and declared it a principality named Sealand. Astoundingly, the British government repeatedly failed to take the platform back. Fifty years later, Sealand still stands, manned by one lone caretaker.

Urbina’s writing style is eminently readable. He has done a remarkable job of revealing the challenges faced by our oceans. With courage, tenacity--and a very patient wife at home--he lays open the myriad of problems the oceans face, as well as ways to solve them. Let’s hope we heed the call.