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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

by lb1lf 7y ago

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.

coredog64 7y ago
One of the stories I recall from my time at an NGO in this space is that a tuna boat crew straight up murdered their fisheries observer and chucked his body overboard. When the ship docked, the responsible crew scattered to the wind. There’s a huge tension in the observer’s position. They’re watching what you’re doing and can see any legal violations. At the same time, they’re dependent on the fishing vessel for food and shelter. High bandwidth communication channels are expensive and hard to come by. And if the captain/crew knows you’re putting their livelihoods at risk in real-time, they might do something about it. So we had to balance observer safety with whatever data we were asking them to collect.
- ryacko 7y ago
  This is true for any situation when you’re the lone outgroup. Unless you have a camera live streaming (which is expensive even in an urban area), you only have the available evidence, which could be scarce or ambiguous. The only deterrent is the chance someone might avenge you, which usually ends up being a prosecutor interested in only padding their win rate. People who survive poverty are more aware of this than others.

by lb1lf 7y ago

coredog64 7y ago

One of the stories I recall from my time at an NGO in this space is that a tuna boat crew straight up murdered their fisheries observer and chucked his body overboard. When the ship docked, the responsible crew scattered to the wind. There’s a huge tension in the observer’s position. They’re watching what you’re doing and can see any legal violations. At the same time, they’re dependent on the fishing vessel for food and shelter. High bandwidth communication channels are expensive and hard to come by. And if the captain/crew knows you’re putting their livelihoods at risk in real-time, they might do something about it. So we had to balance observer safety with whatever data we were asking them to collect.

ryacko 7y ago
This is true for any situation when you’re the lone outgroup. Unless you have a camera live streaming (which is expensive even in an urban area), you only have the available evidence, which could be scarce or ambiguous. The only deterrent is the chance someone might avenge you, which usually ends up being a prosecutor interested in only padding their win rate. People who survive poverty are more aware of this than others.