The author of the story, Ian Urbina, has just published an eminently readable book (Outlaw Ocean, from which this story is an edited excerpt) on the vagaries of law on the high seas; embedding with fishermen, repossessors, fishery authorities and environmentalists he paints a rather grim picture of how you can get away with just about any kind of ruthlessness, cruelty or pollution as long as you do so in international waters.

I picked it up at JFK the day before yesterday, planning on reading a chapter before going to sleep on my flight to Heathrow. Next thing I knew, the flight attendant asked me to prepare for landing.

Up here in Norway they had discovered some absolutely horrid working conditions on some of the trawlers that fish for snow and king crabs. They'd import workers from eastern Europe and Asia (Indonesians etc.) - where the workers would deal with up to 18-hours shifts, to the point that they'd fall asleep on deck, while working.

When food ran out, they'd start eating bait. The pay was so low that they sometimes couldn't afford going back home...$400-$500 monthly salary in northern Europe.

https://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/secret-slave-contracts/7055...

Reminds me of an article discussed here, which I can’t find at the moment, about the horrific conditions that cruise ship employees, often indentured servants, endure.

When I was a kid, working on the open seas seemed so romantic, but I suppose historically it’s mostly been a cruel environment populated with cruel people.

I think NY Times had a similar story about fishing fleets in Thailand and Indonesia... basically modern slavery. Seized passports. Multi-year contracts. Brutal work hours, abuse, and horrendous living conditions.

Sounds like NZ acted aggressively in trying to do the right thing here, which is terrific to hear.

>The last men off the drowning ship said that they saw Shin in the wheelhouse, refusing to abandon his post or put on a life jacket. Hugging a pole and clutching his clear bottle, he was muttering in Korean and crying.

I find this fascinating. You really couldn’t ask for something that would align incentives more in keeping the ship afloat than the captain going down with the ship. And yet, the captain blatantly ignored safety requirements and caused his ship to sink.

I have more respect for this captain, who even though he placed his crew members lives at risk, placed himself at more risk and went down with the ship, than a lot of CEOs who do or tacitly encourage doing very shady (or illegal) things and then escape accountability through golden parachutes. Maybe we need more “captains going down with the ship” type of laws in the business sector.

It is not surprising that these kinds of conditions exist on fishing vessels - you start to treat your fellow human animals the same way you treat other animals. "Fishing," which is really planetary-scale sea foraging, as Jeremy Jackson points out, is incredibly cruel to everyone involved. If you do not already shun seafood because of the massive amounts of mercury and other toxin pollution, maybe consider the ethical problems, and start advocating for a total ban on commercial fishing.

Watch this talk by Jeremy Jackson if you still think that seafood is somehow "ok": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zMN3dTvrwY

"This is the best we can get." That says it all.

The title made me think of pirates. I was prepared to read how horrible seafaring used to be. Turns out for a lot of people it still is.

This really puts the whole Amazon discussion in perspective.

I usually try to stay away from comments on the site implementation, but in this case having the same full page video ad pop up every time you scroll a page on mobile? Seriously, what are they thinking? I understand the importance of ads to a site, but this made the article unreadable to me.