Ian Urbina, The Outlaw Ocean Project
Ian Urbina, a former investigative reporter for the New York Times, is the director of The Outlaw Ocean Project, a non-profit journalism organization based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on reporting about environmental and human rights crimes at sea."
Illegal fishing fleets generate $10 billion in annual sales
If you look at the taxonomy of crime that plays out offshore, it’s both diverse and acute. And yet illegal fishing sits at the top of that hierarchy. It’s 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.
The Thunder flourished in this context. Interpol had issued a Purple Notice on the ship, the equivalent of adding it to a most wanted list, a designation given to only four other ships in the world up to that time. The vessel had collected over $76 million from the illicit sales of seafood in the past decade, more than any other ship, according to Interpol estimates.
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Banned since 2006 from fishing in the Antarctic, the Thunder had been spotted there repeatedly in the years that followed. In 2015, that’s where the environmental organization Sea Shepherd found it. Speaking through a translator, Peter Hammarstedt, captain of the Bob Barker, warned that the Thunder was banned from fishing in those waters and would be stopped.
It was the beginning of an extraordinary chase and the subject of the second episode of “The Outlaw Ocean” podcast, from CBC Podcasts and the L.A. Times. Listen to it here:
For 110 days and more than 10,000 nautical miles spanning two seas and three oceans, the Bob Barker and a companion ship, both operated by Sea Shepherd, trailed behind the trawler, with the three captains close enough to watch one another’s cigarette breaks and on-deck workout routines. In an epic game of cat-and-mouse, the ships maneuvered through an obstacle course of giant ice floes, endured a cyclone-like storm, faced clashes between opposing crews and nearly collided in what became the longest pursuit of an illegal fishing vessel in history.
As chronicled by the Outlaw Ocean Project, a nonprofit journalism organization whose reporter was on board the Bob Barker, the chase ended with a distress call from the Thunder. “We’re sinking,” the Thunder’s captain pleaded over the radio. The ships operated by Sea Shepherd rescued the crew and tried gathering evidence of its crimes before the ship sank to the bottom of the ocean.
