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A Renegade Trawler, Hunted for 10,000 Miles by Vigilantes
- frandroid 11y agoThis is the same writer, Ian Urbina, as the Sea Slaves story that also made the HN homepage yesterday. He's been writing a number of sea stories that look fascinating: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/u/ian_urbina/index.html http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/u... Looking further back into his archive, he also writes about tech, and racism.
- mattdotc 11y agoAs you have correctly noted, this piece is another entry in The Outlaw Ocean series: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/24/world/the-outlaw-ocean.html http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/24/world/the-outl...
- alexqgb 11y agoNeedless to say, advocates for the shipping industry aren't happy about this kind of coverage. http://gcaptain.com/maritime-industry-advocates-slam-the-new-york-times-the-outlaw-ocean-is-attack-journalism/ http://gcaptain.com/maritime-industry-advocates-slam-the-new...
- bduerst 11y agoWow, that was a pretty substandard PR response. They talk about the complexity of their policies but don't talk about enforcement or performance.
- alexqgb 11y agoThat's exactly why I found it interesting. It's always revealing when a response mixes shock and outrage with a series of dodges, misdirections, and evasions.
- ersii 11y agoNote/JFYI: The link goes to a pretty slim article that has an auto-playing video.
- na85 11y agoWell, there's my daily dose of "my life is boring by comparison".
- toomuchtodo 11y agoPlenty of projects like that if you want to a) make the world a better place and b) seek adventure "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke
- molsongolden 11y agoFunding is the difficult part.
- toomuchtodo 11y agoI don't disagree with this. That's a hard nut to crack.
- eru 11y agoThere's lots of muckracking you can do in your free time these days. (Look at eg the plane spotters uncovering CIA torture flights.)
- WalterGR 11y agoPlenty of projects like that if you want to a) make the world a better place and b) seek adventure Do you have any specific recommendations or suggestions on places to start, for helping existing projects? Lately I've been considering finding something that combines both A and B...
- toomuchtodo 11y agoI'm putting a gist together for you of places to start when I'm done working today.
- 11y ago
- zippzom 11y agoThis series is really good. The fact that the nytimes is bleeding money while still producing content of this quality is a sad state of affairs. Must be a better way to monetize this stuff.
- guelo 11y agoI don't think they're bleeding money. They've been operating on slim margins but they are considered to be one of the few old media companies to be successfully transitioning to digital.
- wxs 11y agoI agree that this series is great and I hope we can support more content like it! I don't agree that the NY Times is bleeding money though, it's a rare bright spot in publishing AFAIK. They seem to run a profit every year, though their revenue does not appear to be growing[1]. [1] see financials here: http://investors.nytco.com/files/doc_financials/annual/2014/2014-Annual-Report-(FINAL).pdf http://investors.nytco.com/files/doc_financials/annual/2014/...
- djloche 11y agoIt seems like they're aggressively paying down debts and resolving union related costs. Based on their quarterly reports they seem to be doing okay in terms of cash on balance sheet and revenue vs costs of production. Their major concern long term is still valid - 74% of their revenue comes from print advertising. They need to significantly grow the digital side of their business, and reduce their overall costs.
- mattdotc 11y agoIt would also be nice if people would re-think their mental model about where content comes from and who pays for it. I hear about so many people blocking ads and whatnot - and I understand why - but you don't really see these same people evangelize subscriptions or otherwise supporting these places. Of course, ad blocking is only one aspect to lower digital advertising revenues, but so many people complain about paywalls and whatnot, yet nobody seems to have any good solutions. Until we have a good solution, and people get over their entitlement to free (as in beer) media, outlets like the NYT and others will continue to precariously wobble near the tipping point of print's demise (and the revenue with it).
- aikah 11y agoI know nothing about sea or sailing of even fishing but this article was just stunning. That is the kind of journalism i'm ready to pay for.
- scottyallen 11y agoI agree - the autoplaying videos weaved into the text was really beautiful.
- bittercynic 11y agoSarcasm?
- scottyallen 11y agoNope - I actually quite like it in this instance. I don't tend to like it in the general case though, as it's usually done poorly.
- nickbauman 11y agoGenerally autoplaying anything for me is a no-no. If there's a setting to stop it, I have it set in advance.
- jacquesm 11y agoI love it when the house gets woken up in the middle of the night because I scroll down on a page.
- Intermernet 11y agoYes, is there a logical extension to "UX" design which includes "non-user in proximity experience"? NUIPX perhaps?
- PhasmaFelis 11y agoFor bonus fun, if you try to stop the video, it starts again as soon as you scroll any amount. Great job, guys!
- toolsadmin 11y ago"the Thunder turned 180 degrees and sped toward them, wedging between them to disrupt the effort." Guys on the Thunder got massive balls. I think they deserved that catch.
- mullen 11y ago> Illegal fishing is a global business estimated at $10 billion in annual sales, and one that is thriving as improved technology has enabled fishing vessels to plunder the oceans with greater efficiency. Not sound like a First-Worlder, but so much environmental destruction by sweeping the seas clean of life and helping destroy the planet for so little money. I would have guessed that illegal fishing netted (No pun intended) a lot more than that.
- richdougherty 11y agoIllegal fishing is bad, but it's probably dwarfed by the environmental impact of legal fishing. Interesting discussion about governance over the oceans: http://www.economist.com/news/international/21596990-humans-are-damaging-high-seas-now-oceans-are-doing-harm-back-deep-water http://www.economist.com/news/international/21596990-humans-...
- mullen 11y agoYes, but legal fishing can be regulated. We can setup manageable and productive fisheries that not only can sustain populations but also continue to reproduce and be healthy. With illegal fishing, we can't do that.
- justizin 11y ago> We can setup manageable and productive fisheries that not only can sustain populations but also continue to reproduce and be healthy. We're not, really, though. :/ As long as the demand is highest for the least sustainable fish, someone will haul out and net it for us.
- pstuart 11y agoYe olde tragedy of the commons.
- mikeyouse 11y agoThere are numerous success stories about managed fisheries bringing back stocks, a good example is the Red Snapper catch share that was setup in the Gulf of Mexico; http://www.noaa.gov/features/01_economic/catchshares.html http://www.noaa.gov/features/01_economic/catchshares.html
- jonahx 11y agoThe 4 month campaign must have been really expensive. Is there a reason they didn't just forcibly board the boat with a swat type team from helicopters, or something similar?
- beamatronic 11y agoThey are a non-governmental organization (NGO) and don't have any legal authority.
- jonahx 11y agoAh, in that case, why is the ship even running from them?
- marssaxman 11y agoThe Sea Shepherds were cutting their illegal nets and taking their buoys, and were reporting them to the local authorities whenever they approached a harbor. The fishing boat had no way of selling its catch or taking on more supplies without first losing the Sea Shepherds tailing them.
- justizin 11y agoThey do their best to interfere with their fishing practices, following them around and pulling up their illegal nets, and sending their location to Interpol. It's likely that whatever remaining shred of legitimacy such operations have is highly dependent on not having high-def video of their operations on TV and the internet as well. As the article states, what they do that is most harmful to them is to follow them around and notify any port they attempt to dock at, so they can't get supplies (esp fuel) without risking arrest.
- halviti 11y agoHonsestly, if this is something you are interested in, you should read the article. It's quite good and covers all the details of how the ship is wanted by Interpol and where these activists get the legal authority for what they do out there.
- 140am 11y agoIan Urbina's "The Outlaw Ocean" serie is quite the fascinating and nicely researched read - http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/24/world/the-outlaw-ocean.html http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/24/world/the-outl...
- arjie 11y agoThese are the same folks who also used to own the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MY_Ady_Gil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MY_Ady_Gil which was famously destroyed in a collision with a whaling ship. It's interesting to read internet comments describing these incidents. The universal opinion on the Internet at the time blamed the Ady Gil for being reckless. I wonder what people would be saying if the Bob Barker hadn't been able to handle the storm.
- hyperion2010 11y agoOff topic, but NYT seems to be breaking things again. I have media.autoplay.enable set to false, yet all the videos on this article still autoplay. Better yet, if I change from true to false and then reload the page and scroll down firefox crashes when I reach the first video. edit: ye old error. console.error: [CustomizableUI] Custom widget with id loop-button does not return a valid node Segmentation fault
- mach5 11y agoalso annoying was that the video would autoplay as you scrolled, even if you specifically paused it
- readams 11y agoEvery time you scroll it starts the videos. Even if you stop them it restarts them. And there were a fuckload of them. Very irritating. Luckily you can mute the tab.
- lemevi 11y agoThe videos on that page use JavaScript and scrolling to control when a video plays. The setting you are referring to probably controls autoplay options set from HTML. I doubt any kind of setting in Firefox would disable JavaScript controlling videos as that would break custom controls.
- function_seven 11y ago> I doubt any kind of setting in Firefox would disable JavaScript controlling videos as that would break custom controls. True, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing. I usually prefer the default controls on HTML5 video players to whatever the site wants to cook up. Somewhat similar to scroll bars and form elements. Native, please.
- lemevi 11y agoYou could probably achieve what you want with an extension.
- bruceb 11y agoAP tracks slave boats to Papua New Guinea: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9965296 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9965296
- WalterGR 11y agoFrom the article: "Numerous other agencies — including Interpol, the United Nations and the U.S. State and Defense departments — told the AP they don't have the authority to get involved." So Interpol can get involved in illegal fishing but not human slavery? That's strange.
- dankohn1 11y agoThis is an amazing article, that is crying out for a big budget feature film. I wonder whether legalizing efforts like this would justify bringing back Letters of Marque: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque
- fleitz 11y agoI bet if they did Blackwater would rebrand back to Blackwater.
- kw71 11y agoThe Interpol Purple Notice explains that the ship was previously sailing under the Mongolian flag. Isn't Mongolia a landlocked country? Does it have any navigable routes to the oceans? Where are Mongolia's ports?
- jackgavigan 11y agoAny country can issue ship registrations, even landlocked ones. For a while, Sea Shepherd's vessels sailed under the flag of the Iroquois Nation.
- gambiting 11y agoA country does not have to have a connection to the sea to own ships. Czech Republic and Slovakia both own ships that sail under their own flags despite being landlocked. They are usually stationed in Polish or German ports.
- jchomali 11y agoGreat article!
- Ntrails 11y agoSorry for off topic... Is there a way to allow myself to select text on this website? I find it hard to read on screens without and it's bugging the hell out of me.