海角大神

Ian Urbina is what you might call a globe-trotting journalist, except he focuses his reporting on the oceans, not the land.

Earlier this year he was honored for his investigative writing by the Society of Professional Journalists,听for stories tied to the treatment of migrants in Libya (and off its Mediterranean coast) and disruption in Gambia鈥檚 fisheries, published during 2021 in The New Yorker and The Atlantic. Another story from his Libya reporting 鈥� about Europe鈥檚 treatment of African migrants 鈥� ran here in the Monitor.

Now Mr. Urbina鈥檚 Outlaw Ocean Project is launching a podcast series based on his work, in partnership with the Los Angeles Times and CBC Podcasts.

In an interview with the Monitor鈥檚 Mark Trumbull, he discussed the issues that make oceans important and why, in his words, 鈥淚鈥檓 going to double down on this.鈥� He also points to paths toward solutions 鈥� and hope.听The comments have been edited for length.

You explore what you call the 鈥渙utlaw ocean.鈥� Why are oceans so different from land 鈥� and so difficult to police?

From the perspective of governance, you have this situation where the high seas belong to everyone and no one, and therefore jurisdictionally it鈥檚 an unusually complicated, murky space. ... The second issue is geography. The reality of the high seas is it鈥檚 so incredibly sprawling, two-thirds of the planet. ...

And then when it comes specifically to the category of abuses of crimes that pertain to people 鈥� murder on camera and slavery and abuse of stowaways and wage theft and abandonment of crew, you know, all these human rights and labor abuses 鈥� a contributing factor to that subcategory of crimes is who鈥檚 getting harmed. Most often the victims of those sorts of crimes are poor, are folks from developing nations. ... A lot of them are not literate. A lot of them have signed contracts in languages听they don鈥檛 even speak. ...

And the boss of the [floating workplace] is from one country. The flag of the factory is to another. The guys working in there, getting abused, are from a third. The catch is being all loaded on a fourth. It becomes just insane.

Many of us might feel like, well, my connection with the ocean is when I buy some fish for dinner. But is it much more than that?

I mean, if you think of the planet Earth as a living organism, maybe metaphorically. It has inherent systems. It鈥檚 got lungs. The lungs of the planet 鈥� 50% of the air we breathe 鈥� are cleaned by the oceans. So the lungs of the planet are at stake. If you think of it as the commercial circulatory system, 80% of our [global] commerce gets to us cheaply and efficiently ... by ship. So not just fish, but iPhones and, you know, tennis shoes and grain and oil. ... The oceans are also a temperature stabilizer of our body, you know, of the body planet. ... They take off a lot of the heat. ...

There is this misconception that it鈥檚 ever regenerating. It鈥檚 so big,听鈥渄ilution is the solution to pollution鈥� was the mantra throughout the 鈥�70s and 鈥�80s. ... We鈥檙e starting to realize, oh, just because it鈥檚 big doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 utterly durable.听

So you have a seven-part podcast with the goal of shedding light on these varied challenges that are so often out of sight, out of mind. As we talk about that, I hope to get more positive, but does the stress on the oceans amount to a disaster in the making?听

Yes, it is a disaster. But that doesn鈥檛 mean we have the luxury of being demoralized. ... Do I think it鈥檚 unsolvable? No, I think there are lots of ways in which things can be done to mitigate the disaster and better govern. And a lot of people are doing lots of things in different places, in individual fights, in individual battles.

One episode features the nonprofit group Sea Shepherd chasing down a ship on Interpol鈥檚 wanted list for illegal fishing. Does that illustrate some hope for holding the illegal fishing operators to account? [This episode was released today as Part 2 of the weekly podcast.]

Sea Shepherd said ... we鈥檙e going to go after these guys and we鈥檙e going to find them wherever they are, and we鈥檙e going to chase them and harangue them and draw a lot of media attention on them and sort of show how broken the system is. ...

And they succeeded. You know, they found the Thunder, which was at that time ranked the top worst illegal fishing vessel on the planet, $67 million worth of illicit catch. And they found these guys 鈥� nets in the water 鈥� and proceeded to chase them for 110 days all across the planet. And all sorts of dramatic stuff happened in the interim. And ultimately the Thunder 鈥� spoiler alert here 鈥� sunk itself and all the crew were rescued [off the coast of West Africa]. But they scuttled the evidence of their true bigger crimes, were rescued by Sea Shepherd, handed over to law enforcement, and the officers were prosecuted and served time. So I think there are cases like that where you see various actors make savvy use of the media and the law to try to make a difference.听

On the goal of more accountability, how have things been changing and where do we need to go?听

I do think there鈥檚 ... more media coverage by lots of folks, a lot of good. There鈥檚 more wind in the sails of the advocates and the academics who were in the trenches already fighting this fight. Now they鈥檝e got more media behind them. I think you also see more market side players having an awareness that, you know, this issue isn鈥檛 going away.听

Whether it鈥檚 the issue of slavery and the use of captive labor as a cost-saving tactic on fishing vessels, or intentional dumping of oil as a cost-saving tactic, or illegal fishing听鈥撎齧eaning going places you鈥檙e not supposed to or using gear you鈥檙e not supposed to 鈥� all these things are cost-saving tactics. And who benefits from that but the companies? And the companies writ large, you know, the ship-owning companies, the insurers, the fish sellers, wholesalers, grocery stores, restaurants, all these market players are the ones who turn a blind eye. ... The decentralization of the supply chain has allowed them to say, 鈥淲ell, we don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 happening.鈥� You know, 鈥渨e outsource鈥� ... and so they can鈥檛 be held accountable. Well, I think there鈥檚 a reckoning coming on that.

Is there some overarching human value or values that these ocean issues call for?听

One can argue this from a utilitarian and highly pragmatic point of view, which is like your sheer existential self-interest.听You need to care about these things. And let鈥檚 not put any ethical issues in the mix. Let鈥檚 just put survival and self-interest in the mix. And you can convincingly argue that you should really care about these things, even the slavery concerns, because that stuff comes back to haunt you.听

Or 鈥� and I like to do the 鈥渁nd鈥� 鈥� or you can argue this from a fundamental humanity, sort of a humanism point of view, which is to say, Hey, look, if I鈥檓 benefiting from something that I don鈥檛 agree with and I鈥檓 confronted by it, then I probably need to do something about that.

This reminds me, you鈥檝e reported on fisheries in Gambia, and the role of Chinese companies on the coast there. Do you see hope for Gambia to regain more agency over its own resources?

I mean, the story of West Africa generally, more specifically Senegal, Mauritania, Gambia, and more specifically with regard to this weird thing called fishmeal, is like a textbook story. ... It鈥檚 two guys at a table discussing a contract, but they鈥檙e not on equal footing. ... And the beneficiaries of the stuff that China is extracting is you and me. You know, we鈥檙e the ones buying the stuff that China is exporting that鈥檚 getting fed by [fishmeal from Gambia]. ...

The government of Gambia has no ability to actually check whether the terms of the agreement are being complied with and a sustainable extraction is occurring or an unsustainable extraction is occurring. ... The factories that get built have very few actual Africans working in them. It鈥檚 mostly mechanized and it鈥檚 almost entirely for export. So the revenue doesn鈥檛 stay local and create other industry. ...

Aquaculture fish farming was created in the 鈥�70s to try to slow ocean depletion. [Yet today] all this ground up bonga fish, 30 to 40% of all the biomass pulled out of the ocean, isn鈥檛 for human consumption; it鈥檚 for fishmeal. It鈥檚 to be ground up and to be fed to the high-priced shrimp, salmon, the tuna. ...

So now we鈥檙e catching wild caught fish in places like Gambia that historically was eaten by the locals and was free at the market, often, because it was so plentiful. Now the locals can鈥檛 touch the stuff because they鈥檙e priced out, because it鈥檚 all going to the factory to get ground up and exported. That鈥檚 the crazy economy we have.

What can the average person do in their own actions? What would you recommend?

First, I鈥檇 say, don鈥檛 get demoralized and don鈥檛 think that you should or can solve the war. Just think about battles, and choose which of the many battles interest you most, whether it鈥檚 sea slavery or plastic pollution or whaling or illegal fishing or murder and violence at sea or whatever. Just narrow it down, choose a bite-size thing, and then focus on that.听

And then the second thing I would say is, think about yourself in a lot of different ways. Every average person has lots of hats. We are voters. We are taxpayers. We are donors. We are interlocutors; we have conversations with our kids and our partners. ... We鈥檙e buyers. ... If you think of yourself as, 鈥淚 have six hats and in each of them I can do something small ... I鈥檓 going to do a little research and figure out what鈥檚 the better or worse shrimp to buy.鈥� OK, that鈥檚 a little action as a consumer. ... If you just take it small and think of yourself in lots of different roles and try to do something small on your chosen thing, it can make a difference.