Debunking what we think we know of the modern ocean, and telling the stories of those we would never hear, Outlaw Ocean is a necessary read for anyone concerned with how a seemingly endless resource is in managed (or not).

A phenomenal naval thriller - equal parts pirate chase on the high seas, political entanglement, and gobsmacking memoir. Has enlightened me as to many areas of the fishing industry which are not widely known, and mamde me hungry to devour anything with even a whiff of a ship on the front cover. Recommend unreservedly.

Ian Urbina is a journalist. This book contains a series of his reports about the Oceans and the law (or rather lack of it). He has spent several years investigating these topics and compiling this wide ranging book. The oceans are dangerous places and Ian himself has faced dangers while making these reports. Frequently there is no real authority fin these remote places and equally no one to police them even if any authority was clear. While the oceans are dangerous much of the danger here comes from those who work on it. Frequently they exploit both it and fellow humans.

I enjoyed so much of this book. It would be tempting to go through it chapter by chapter. However that would simply spoil the book for other readers. For this review I will simply mention two or three of the chapters that I found particularly interesting.

The book starts and ends with stories about the environmental action group Sea Shepherd. In the first one two Sea Shepherd boats are chasing a "wanted" fishing boat starting in the Antarctic and then going where the fishing boat runs too. Frankly it read quite like a thriller and was an excellent start. The second looks at their activities in 2016 trying to stop the Japanese whaling fleet despite there being an injunction against them - again an excellent story. However in these stories and the others in the book the author uses the context of the story to look at the more global issues as well as the specifics. He also generally manages to maintain a fairly even stance too although that is simply not possible in some cases. Few aspects of this are simply black or white - Ian draws this out very well in my opinion.

An intriguing story in this book is about Women on Waves. The organisation has a small boat. They land in largely Catholic countries, collect women who want an abortion and sail until they are outside the 12 mile limit. This means that they are in international waters and so assisting women in having a medical abortion is not illegal. The boat has an Austrian flag and so that also allows activity that would potentially be illegal otherwise. This report allows the author to continue exploring the nature of "flags" of vessels including flags of convenience and the nature of maritime laws - a constant theme here. Broadening this out means the author considers the effect this behaviour - providing abortions - may have on the countries concerned by stimulating dialogue.

I find it so hard to simply find one more interesting story in this collection. There are so many things covered by this book that I think I'll just make a few points of interest.
• There are a number of stories about the sheer cruelty with which crew are treated. There are bizarre approaches to legality of what is done commercially and what is "allowed" by countries or turned a blind eye to.
• The "good guys" can be very hard to identify sometimes. If we still continue to kill whales what should we do about whales who have learnt to strip long line catches as fishermen reel them in - the costs are significant.
• What are the "economics" of stowaways - the costs to vessels can be high and that can lead to some troubling practices. How about the transporting of people arrested by boat rather than by plane - what might happen during extended sea voyages that could not happen any other way.
• There is time with the "repo" men who try and get ships back for people who are owed money - fascinating.

While maybe more than I intended to say when I started this review these points are simply a window into a fascinating book. There was not a single chapter that did not hold my attention.

"It also felt like time travel as I witnessed things - piracy, whaling, slavery, privateers - that I had previously assumed were safely locked in the past". In many ways this quote sums up this book for me.

This book should certainly make us think. It would be all too easy to say that this is not our problem. However it is our actions that lead to the abuse of both oceans and the people who work or are forced to work on them. One of the points that the author makes very vividly is the fact that we cannot expect to buy cheap tins of "responsibly sourced" tuna fish without someone paying a high price. If the idea of this book interests you do read it - it is worthwhile. 4.5/5