''The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier'' (also published as ''The Outlaw Ocean: Crime and Survival in the Last Untamed Frontier'') is a 2019 book by Ian Urbina about crime and extralegal activity in

international waters The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed region ...

. The book was based on an investigate journalism series Urbina wrote for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. Topics covered include

illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) is an issue around the world. Fishing industry observers believe IUU occurs in most fisheries, and accounts for up to 30% of total catches in some important fisheries. Illegal fishing takes p ...

modern slavery Contemporary slavery, also sometimes known as modern slavery or neo-slavery, refers to institutional slavery that continues to exist in the 21st century. Estimates of the number of enslaved people range from around 38 million to 49.6 million, d ...

and

violent crime A violent crime, violent felony, crime of violence or crime of a violent nature is a crime in which an offender or perpetrator uses or threatens to use harmful Force (law), force upon a victim. This entails both crimes in which the violence, vio ...

committed at sea, as well of the work of organisations, governments and companies in international waters. The book was critically acclaimed.

Synopsis

''The Outlaw Ocean'' is structured as a series of essays about lawlessness at sea with each chapter covering a different aspect and case studies. Urbina describes his experiences of their reporting. These include: * The ''Thunder'', an

illegal fishing Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) is an issue around the world. Fishing industry observers believe IUU occurs in most fisheries, and accounts for up to 30% of total catches in some important fisheries. Illegal fishing takes pl ...

vessel that was part of the Bandit 6, and its pursuit by the

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is a non-profit, marine conservation activism organization based in Friday Harbor, Washington, Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, Washington, in the United States. Sea Shepherd employs direct action t ...

* Maritime law enforcement against

Palau Palau, officially the Republic of Palau, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the western Pacific Ocean. The Republic of Palau consists of approximately 340 islands and is the western part of the Caroline Islands ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

*The

Principality of Sealand The Principality of Sealand () is a micronation on HM Fort Roughs (also known as Roughs Tower), an offshore platform in the North Sea. It is situated on Rough Sands, a sandbar located approximately from the coast of Suffolk and from the c ...

, an unrecognised micronation and former

pirate radio station Pirate radio is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license, whether an invalid license or no license at all. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are rec ...

off the coast of

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

Women on Waves Women on Waves (WoW) is a Dutch nongovernmental organization ( NGO) created in 1999 by Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts, in order to bring reproductive health services, particularly non-surgical abortion services and education, to women in coun ...

, an NGO that provides

abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

s in international waters for women in countries where they are illegal *

Stowaway A stowaway or clandestine traveller is a person who secretly boards a vehicle, such as a ship, an aircraft, a train, cargo truck or bus. Sometimes, the purpose is to get from one place to another without paying for transportation. In other c ...

s in international shipping *A

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by a group of Environmental movement, environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its biod ...

and academic expedition by the MV ''Esperanza'' to survey the

Amazon Reef The Amazon Reef, or Amazonian Reef, is an extensive coral reef, coral and sponge reef system, located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of French Guiana and northern Brazil. It is one of the largest known reef systems in the world, with sci ...

in advance of plans to drill the region for oil. * Poor working conditions and

in the

fishing industry The fishing industry includes any industry or activity that takes, cultures, processes, preserves, stores, transports, markets or sells fish or fish products. It is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as including recreational, sub ...

, particularly in

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

*Violent crime at sea, including an investigation of a clip showing a murder at sea committed by a

longliner Longline fishing, or longlining, is a commercial fishing angling technique that uses a long ''main line'' with baited hooks attached at intervals via short branch lines called ''snoods'' or ''gangions''.Piracy off the coast of Somalia Piracy off the coast of Somalia occurs in the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel, and Indian Ocean, in Somali territorial waters and other surrounding places and has a long troubled history with different perspectives from different communities. I ...

Reception

The book was acclaimed by critics. It was reviewed positively in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

'', ''

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

'' and ''

''. It also entered ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list in September 2019. Urbina's reporting adapted for the book won numerous awards as a ''New York Times'' series.

Adaptations

The book is accompanied by a musical project, ''The Outlaw Ocean Music Project'', which involved around 200 musicians sampling field recordings from the book's research trips and creating a soundtrack. Urbina also established ''The Outlaw Ocean Project'', a

non-profit journalism Nonprofit journalism or philanthrojournalism is the practice of journalism funded largely by donations and foundations. The growth in this sector has been helped by funders seeing a need for public interest journalism like Investigative journalism ...

organisation to produce further stories about maritime crime. A film adaptation of Urbina's reporting is in development by

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

, set to be produced by

Leonardo DiCaprio Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (; ; born November 11, 1974) is an American actor and film producer. Known for Leonardo DiCaprio filmography, his work in biographical and period films, he is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received ...

. In 2022 CBC Radio and the LA Times released a seven-part

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

called ''The Outlaw Ocean'', featuring Urbina's reportage.

References

2019 non-fiction books American non-fiction books Environmental non-fiction books Non-fiction books about crime Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing Investigative journalism Maritime books Works about fishing Works originally published in The New York Times Alfred A. Knopf books {{Environment-book-stub