11 ms·

This is an aside to the overall story, but > At any given time, there are more than 1.4 million seafarers plying the world's waterways, according to the Intern

This is an aside to the overall story, but > At any given time, there are more than 1.4 million seafarers plying the world's waterways, according to the International Chamber of Shipping. I mean, I guess this is obvious because SOMEONE has to ship all the stuff everywhere, but that's a truly crazy number of people to me. I guess it goes to show that the oceans are almost unfathomably huge that they can still be completely empty, even though a million people are living there on a daily basis.

sharkweek 6y ago
There's that famous story of that Marine who fell off a boat and survived at sea for 36 hours. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1995-11-30-9511300155-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1995-11-30-951130... I cannot for a second imagine the absolute horror of feeling THAT alone with god knows what beneath you. But imagine the good fortune required for a random fishing boat to pass by and find you. Or this guy who fell off a fishing boat in the middle of the night and survived, two sharks at one point circling him: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/magazine/a-speck-in-the-sea.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/magazine/a-speck-in-the-s...
- optimalsolver 6y ago
  Relevant username. Also, that guy who survived in a pocket of air in a capsized boat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oqnpEozQYo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oqnpEozQYo
dalbasal 6y ago
The vast majority of them are along shipping routes, which are generally pretty crowded.. at least relative to the open ocean.
handedness 6y ago
For context, that's roughly comparable to the respective populations of Equatorial Guinea, Trinidad and Tobago, or Estonia.
ryan_j_naughton 6y ago
1.4 million is an exceptionally small number of people compared to the size of the oceans. You could fit all 7+ billion humans in New Zealand if we all lived as densely as Manhattan. [1] So 1.4 million people on the oceans is still virtually empty overall. Think about it this way. There are 3.2 million Mongolians and Mongolia is quite large -- thus, Mongolia is extremely empty. There are less than half as many seafarers as Mongolians, and they are spread over a much larger area. That being said -- those seafarers are actually mostly just in shipping lanes -- which are actually quite crowded. So crowded such that when they intersect with whale migratory routes, the likelihood of impacts is extremely high. [1] https://www.fastcompany.com/3016331/think-the-world-is-crowded-you-could-fit-the-entire-human-race-in-new-zealand https://www.fastcompany.com/3016331/think-the-world-is-crowd...
- jacquesm 6y ago
  I'm just trying to imagine a city the size of New Zealand, Australia devoted to agriculture and the rest of the planet devoted to nature. That would be quite a statement with respect to stewardship of the planet.
  - Aeolun 6y ago
    Can’t we choose places that are a little closer to the rest of the planet?
    - jacquesm 6y ago
      No, that's the beauty of it :)
    - jacobr1 6y ago
      If the point is the keep them as a nature preserve, their distance is probably a feature.
      - Aeolun 6y ago
        I kind of want some nature in my life. Cities with the density of Tokyo or New York aren’t exactly known for that, so it has to be in reach.
elorant 6y ago
1.4 million people though doesn't equal 1.4 million ships. Divide it by let's say 15 people per ship and then all you have is a little less than 100k ships. Which doesn't sound like a lot.
aaron695 6y ago
There's about the same number of people (not workers) in the air at any time. And the air is orders of magnitude bigger. Which is cool, we got our flying city, but unfortunately we made it evenly distributed.
- ehnto 6y ago
  Looking at Flight Radar, at least pre covid, was absolutely astounding every time. The scale of humanity is really incredible to me. There are more people in the air than live in my city. When I first flew to a big city, Osaka, I flew over 3000km of desert before even getting out of my country, and then bam, everything was absolutely infested with life and activity. More 'stuff' than I had ever seen. Looking at Flight radar not long ago, I saw the veritable stream of Japan Post cargo planes one after the other flying into HK or China, I forget. I remember thinking that just the postage was more planes than were aloft where I live for all commercial, travel and personal activity combined.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

sharkweek 6y ago

There's that famous story of that Marine who fell off a boat and survived at sea for 36 hours. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1995-11-30-9511300155-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1995-11-30-951130... I cannot for a second imagine the absolute horror of feeling THAT alone with god knows what beneath you. But imagine the good fortune required for a random fishing boat to pass by and find you. Or this guy who fell off a fishing boat in the middle of the night and survived, two sharks at one point circling him: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/magazine/a-speck-in-the-sea.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/magazine/a-speck-in-the-s...

optimalsolver 6y ago
Relevant username. Also, that guy who survived in a pocket of air in a capsized boat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oqnpEozQYo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oqnpEozQYo

dalbasal 6y ago

The vast majority of them are along shipping routes, which are generally pretty crowded.. at least relative to the open ocean.

handedness 6y ago

For context, that's roughly comparable to the respective populations of Equatorial Guinea, Trinidad and Tobago, or Estonia.

ryan_j_naughton 6y ago

1.4 million is an exceptionally small number of people compared to the size of the oceans. You could fit all 7+ billion humans in New Zealand if we all lived as densely as Manhattan. [1] So 1.4 million people on the oceans is still virtually empty overall. Think about it this way. There are 3.2 million Mongolians and Mongolia is quite large -- thus, Mongolia is extremely empty. There are less than half as many seafarers as Mongolians, and they are spread over a much larger area. That being said -- those seafarers are actually mostly just in shipping lanes -- which are actually quite crowded. So crowded such that when they intersect with whale migratory routes, the likelihood of impacts is extremely high. [1] https://www.fastcompany.com/3016331/think-the-world-is-crowded-you-could-fit-the-entire-human-race-in-new-zealand https://www.fastcompany.com/3016331/think-the-world-is-crowd...

jacquesm 6y ago
I'm just trying to imagine a city the size of New Zealand, Australia devoted to agriculture and the rest of the planet devoted to nature. That would be quite a statement with respect to stewardship of the planet.
- Aeolun 6y ago
  Can’t we choose places that are a little closer to the rest of the planet?
  - jacquesm 6y ago
    No, that's the beauty of it :)
  - jacobr1 6y ago
    If the point is the keep them as a nature preserve, their distance is probably a feature.
    - Aeolun 6y ago
      I kind of want some nature in my life. Cities with the density of Tokyo or New York aren’t exactly known for that, so it has to be in reach.

elorant 6y ago

1.4 million people though doesn't equal 1.4 million ships. Divide it by let's say 15 people per ship and then all you have is a little less than 100k ships. Which doesn't sound like a lot.

aaron695 6y ago

There's about the same number of people (not workers) in the air at any time. And the air is orders of magnitude bigger. Which is cool, we got our flying city, but unfortunately we made it evenly distributed.

ehnto 6y ago
Looking at Flight Radar, at least pre covid, was absolutely astounding every time. The scale of humanity is really incredible to me. There are more people in the air than live in my city. When I first flew to a big city, Osaka, I flew over 3000km of desert before even getting out of my country, and then bam, everything was absolutely infested with life and activity. More 'stuff' than I had ever seen. Looking at Flight radar not long ago, I saw the veritable stream of Japan Post cargo planes one after the other flying into HK or China, I forget. I remember thinking that just the postage was more planes than were aloft where I live for all commercial, travel and personal activity combined.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]