A world full of enslavers and criminals .. Unknown crimes in the high oceans
French newspaper Le Figaro has reviewed a book by journalist Ian Urbina, who was fortunate to carry out an investigation into outlaws on the high seas, after two years of work as a reporter for The New York Times, and then another two years in which he left the newspaper and funded his investigations through the publisher of his book.
The reports of this journalist, as reviewed by the newspaper, reveal boundless greed in the high oceans, and a world unknown to land-based readers, a world full of enslaved and outlaws.
Charles Jaigo, who presented the book, says that this courageous 40-year-old journalist would not have done this without his cooperation with environmentalists from civil society organizations Shepherd, Greenpeace and others, as evidenced by a list of thanks Their cooperation in the introduction to his book.
Despite that support, Urbina criticizes the way these organizations operate, saying that they often have a simplified view of the motives of their enemies. Human rights defenders who are concerned about the mistreatment of seafarers suffer the same disadvantage, he says.
Tragedy on the high seas The importance of this book comes from the combination of monitoring the damage to the marine environment and recounting the miserable tragedy of the enslaved Filipinos, Thais and Koreans over the vast areas of water.
“The sea has no blue helmets,” Urbina told the newspaper in Paris. Although 87% of the world’s shipping is carried out by sea, the most powerful and deceptive law prevails, as there is in fact what they call land – metaphorical “savage capitalism” – and there is no time or money to impose fishing quotas or set decent living conditions. For sailors. The newspaper says that the stories of this book are read by the person as if he was reading one of the black novels, to get out of it has been dizziness hit by a large number of drizzles, storms, frost and horror visions that fill this destructive blue world.
It is clear from the book that the ocean is not peaceful anywhere, neither in China nor South Korea nor Taiwan, nor among the lax crews from Nigeria to Somalia or from Mongolia or Togo, which do the worst job, noting that this is the era of greed and violent captains, The era of phantom companies that hide behind the exploiters of sea workers.
Although the developed countries are less targeted, they also have their calculations, especially in the chapter on giant cruises by boats with a population of 4,000 passengers and dumping their sewage and fuel with impunity.
The writer explains that these non-fatal crimes are not easy to make headlines in the world, because it is difficult for people to take care of what they never see, especially as it is unknown because the governments themselves are not aware of most of the wealth of territorial waters, although the Obama administration submitted a budget canceled by his successor to put Map of all the seabed in its territorial waters.
Outlaws Committee Most people, when they are on the beach, are turning their backs on the sea, where no one knows what’s going on there, while the outlaws make it their paradise. Urbina says the ocean “despite its stunning beauty, is a miserable place that houses a dark human world.”
In this book, there are many stories related to sailors covering a very wide range of activities, from high seas abortions to the transformation of oil platforms into tourist resorts. But one of the most striking is the stories of illegal fishing, with more than 56 million men working on fishing vessels.
Illegal seafood trade is booming globally, with annual sales of $ 156 billion. The writer reviews the story of the Thunder boat, which specializes in the fishing of “sea lions” rich in Omega-3 from Chile and Latin America, which threw his 11-kilometer network in the southern ocean.
He was chased by Interpol but was caught by the crew of the Shepherd Naval Society, whose founder Paul Watson was known for guerrilla tactics.
At the end of the book, the author proposes different solutions for better and safer ocean observations by reducing fish consumption, including tuna, salmon and shrimp.
The sea sometimes does not wait for human justice, he said, as it was learned recently that a swarm of whales spotted, hunted, and destroyed nets to feed on this easy catch, and many sailors even lost their arms in this attack.
source: agencies