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The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier Urbina, Ian (2019). New York: Alfred A. Knopf; 560 pages; ISBN 978-0-4514-9294-4, hardcover, $30; ISBN 978-0-4514-9295-1, ebook.
This collection of 15 essays (and optimistic appendix) provide first-hand accounts and interviews (xiii, methodology) with persons who have found themselves within, or combatting, the maritime underworld of forced labor, illegal fishing, marine pollution, abandonment and a catalogue of disregard for basic human rights. Written in engaging and direct prose, this book provides a glimpse of life aboard said vessels and helps illuminate the land-based structures that, for profit, perpetuate this human suffering. The Outlaw Ocean has understandably been well received. This review approaches the text from an international lawyer's perspective.
At the outset, for teachers developing a law of the sea course, this-and not an academic text or the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)-should be students' summer reading. Urbina's 40-month investigative report highlights complex transnational challenges for which law and politics are (currently) ill-equipped to address-an inspiration for students far greater than any purely legal discussion. Indeed, in this author's experience, it was the infamous whale wars (chapter 15) that first inspired a career in this field.
This review divides the book into four cross-cutting themes, before discussing continued Outlaw Ocean collaborations. Each chapter contains further details which challenge maritime scholars to offer realistic solutions.
I.Forgotten Fishers
Chapter 2 addresses fisheries from an environmental and practical perspective, namely how a small island state like Palau, with vast maritime zones and few enforcement resources, can adequately monitor and enforce its fisheries law. Significant attention is placed on technology's role in both fisheries MCS and capture, as well as the evolution of Palau's measures in light of the pressures of illegal fishing and a changing environment.
The human element of fisheries is at the forefront of Chapter 4 involving the tale of South Korean flagged and operated vessels illegally fishing in New Zealand, the Bering Sea, and disputed waters near the Falkland Islands. Notwithstanding their environmental impact, the focus is upon the horrendous use of forced labor, violence and sexual assaults under the authority of poorly qualified officers, with deadly results. Urbina visits Indonesia to investigate the tactics of debt bondage and nondisclosure agreements, as...