The outlaw ocean was a book that i knew would fit the bill for my year long Water theme. I haven't read very many Non-fiction books, and this one, took me quite a long time to get through, not because it was boring, but because it was long. At 560 pages, I really did have my work cut out for me.
This book seems to be the compilation of a lot of work that was published in the NYT - where Urbina worked for many years. During that time he investigated and reported on all sorts of skullduggery that occurs in the oceans primarily because - as we all know- the ocean lives by different rules.
Urbina tells the tales of a floating medical clinic that operates under the laws of the flag it flies, horrific sea-slavery conditions and situations, real life pirates, and a lot of environmental pain.
The information shared is done in a narrative style that is plenty exciting and did keep me engaged (kinda... it did take me 2 months to finish the audio-book). I did feel like I had learned more about the vagaries of life on the ocean, especially in terms of the role of law and how and where it applies.
Urbina is a wild character - with a Pulitzer for reporting- and indeed he seemed to pursue all leads for his story - including voluntarily going to Somalia for his story ( and predictably - almost perishing- as a former aide worker in E. Africa, as soon as I started to read this I began to wonder about his common sense). My biggest concern was that he seemed to hire a lot of folks and then also put them in the same danger. Opportunities in Somalia are not super frequent and some of those folks may have felt they couldn't say no, so that entire foray into that area really left me less enthused about the person, but as far as the book- it's education and informative. And, Of course, common sense may never win a Pulitzer. He's also had a bit of controversy with some issue with a charity type organization he started that's directly related to this book. Click here for that...
Despite the controversy- as a book, I would recommend it. I may not want to participate as a musician in some sort of oceanic scheme, but- as a reader, I don't think this book is in any way misleading. I learned quite a bit about the ocean, and oceanic law- or lack there - of, and what can be done to help both the ocean and those who's lives are tied to it.
STATS
First Published August 2019
Pages: 560
Available as an Audio Book : Yes
Trigger Warnings: violence, murder, people, animal and environmental abuse, , Environmental crime, more murder, political violence,,
(this is not a full list, read responsibly)
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