
A Renegade Trawler, Hunted for 10,000 Miles by Vigilantes - denzil_correa
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/world/a-renegade-trawler-hunted-for-10000-miles-by-vigilantes.html?_r=0
======
frandroid
This is the same writer, Ian Urbina, as the Sea Slaves story that also made
the HN homepage yesterday. He's been writing a number of sea stories that look
fascinating:
[http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/u...](http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/u/ian_urbina/index.html)

Looking further back into his archive, he also writes about tech, and racism.

~~~
mattdotc
As you have correctly noted, this piece is another entry in The Outlaw Ocean
series:

[http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/24/world/the-
outl...](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/24/world/the-outlaw-
ocean.html)

~~~
alexqgb
Needless to say, advocates for the shipping industry aren't happy about this
kind of coverage. [http://gcaptain.com/maritime-industry-advocates-slam-the-
new...](http://gcaptain.com/maritime-industry-advocates-slam-the-new-york-
times-the-outlaw-ocean-is-attack-journalism/)

~~~
bduerst
Wow, that was a pretty substandard PR response. They talk about the complexity
of their policies but don't talk about enforcement or performance.

~~~
alexqgb
That's exactly why I found it interesting. It's always revealing when a
response mixes shock and outrage with a series of dodges, misdirections, and
evasions.

------
aikah
I know nothing about sea or sailing of even fishing but this article was just
stunning. That is the kind of journalism i'm ready to pay for.

~~~
umanwizard
Talk is cheap -- did you sign up for an NYT subscription?

~~~
arjie
I tried, but they have a form that claimed it works but does not actually work
for my American Express card. I cleared it all and typed it in looking at my
card and it claimed my CVV was invalid.

It worked with another card.

I'm home and ill today so I can't do any actual work which is why I had time
for this charade. Any other day I would have simply hit the back button and
ignored them.

Talk _is_ cheap. A broken billing form? Now that is costly.

~~~
sliverstorm
I hope I don't come across as too patronizing, but Amex cards do trip end
users up sometimes- the CVV number being 4 digits, and on the front of the
card, unlike Visa & MasterCard... I've personally made the mistake of reading
the wrong numbers off my Amex cards a few times.

~~~
arjie
Ha ha, not to worry, I did use the four digits on the front. This is my
primary card. They have a "what is this?" too to look at and help with the CVV
that corresponds exactly to my card.

------
mullen
> Illegal fishing is 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.

Not sound like a First-Worlder, but so much environmental destruction by
sweeping the seas clean of life and helping destroy the planet for so little
money. I would have guessed that illegal fishing netted (No pun intended) a
lot more than that.

~~~
x0054
This is in general true about most criminal activity. Most crimes net very
little profit.

~~~
coldtea
Except white collar and government crime, from the Wall Street deregulation
abuses to colonialism. Those net trillions....

------
zippzom
This series is really good. The fact that the nytimes is bleeding money while
still producing content of this quality is a sad state of affairs. Must be a
better way to monetize this stuff.

~~~
djloche
It seems like they're aggressively paying down debts and resolving union
related costs. Based on their quarterly reports they seem to be doing okay in
terms of cash on balance sheet and revenue vs costs of production. Their major
concern long term is still valid - 74% of their revenue comes from print
advertising. They need to significantly grow the digital side of their
business, and reduce their overall costs.

~~~
mattdotc
It would also be nice if people would re-think their mental model about where
content comes from and who pays for it. I hear about so many people blocking
ads and whatnot - and I understand why - but you don't really see these same
people evangelize subscriptions or otherwise supporting these places.

Of course, ad blocking is only one aspect to lower digital advertising
revenues, but so many people complain about paywalls and whatnot, yet nobody
seems to have any good solutions.

Until we have a good solution, and people get over their entitlement to free
(as in beer) media, outlets like the NYT and others will continue to
precariously wobble near the tipping point of print's demise (and the revenue
with it).

~~~
ovis
Has anyone experimented with micropayments? I'd pay a dollar or two to read an
article like this now and then, but I couldn't see myself paying $200 a year
for a subscription.

~~~
vmarsy
Yes, Blendle in the Netherlands (and Germany?) :

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9453821](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9453821)

------
na85
Well, there's my daily dose of "my life is boring by comparison".

~~~
toomuchtodo
Plenty of projects like that if you want to a) make the world a better place
and b) seek adventure

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
nothing." \-- Edmund Burke

~~~
molsongolden
Funding is the difficult part.

~~~
toomuchtodo
I don't disagree with this. That's a hard nut to crack.

------
140am
Ian Urbina's "The Outlaw Ocean" serie is quite the fascinating and nicely
researched read - [http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/24/world/the-
outl...](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/24/world/the-outlaw-
ocean.html)

------
arjie
These are the same folks who also used to own the
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MY_Ady_Gil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MY_Ady_Gil)
which was famously destroyed in a collision with a whaling ship. It's
interesting to read internet comments describing these incidents.

The universal opinion on the Internet at the time blamed the Ady Gil for being
reckless. I wonder what people would be saying if the Bob Barker hadn't been
able to handle the storm.

------
kw71
The Interpol Purple Notice explains that the ship was previously sailing under
the Mongolian flag. Isn't Mongolia a landlocked country? Does it have any
navigable routes to the oceans? Where are Mongolia's ports?

~~~
jackgavigan
Any country can issue ship registrations, even landlocked ones. For a while,
Sea Shepherd's vessels sailed under the flag of the Iroquois Nation.

------
bruceb
AP tracks slave boats to Papua New Guinea:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9965296](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9965296)

~~~
WalterGR
From the article: "Numerous other agencies — including Interpol, the United
Nations and the U.S. State and Defense departments — told the AP they don't
have the authority to get involved."

So Interpol can get involved in illegal fishing but not human slavery? That's
strange.

------
dankohn1
This is an amazing article, that is crying out for a big budget feature film.
I wonder whether legalizing efforts like this would justify bringing back
Letters of Marque:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque)

~~~
fleitz
I bet if they did Blackwater would rebrand back to Blackwater.

------
jonahx
The 4 month campaign must have been really expensive. Is there a reason they
didn't just forcibly board the boat with a swat type team from helicopters, or
something similar?

~~~
beamatronic
They are a non-governmental organization (NGO) and don't have any legal
authority.

~~~
jonahx
Ah, in that case, why is the ship even running from them?

~~~
justizin
They do their best to interfere with their fishing practices, following them
around and pulling up their illegal nets, and sending their location to
Interpol.

It's likely that whatever remaining shred of legitimacy such operations have
is highly dependent on not having high-def video of their operations on TV and
the internet as well.

As the article states, what they do that is most harmful to them is to follow
them around and notify any port they attempt to dock at, so they can't get
supplies (esp fuel) without risking arrest.

------
hyperion2010
Off topic, but NYT seems to be breaking things again. I have
media.autoplay.enable set to false, yet all the videos on this article still
autoplay. Better yet, if I change from true to false and then reload the page
and scroll down firefox crashes when I reach the first video. edit: ye old
error.

console.error: [CustomizableUI] Custom widget with id loop-button does not
return a valid node Segmentation fault

~~~
lemevi
The videos on that page use JavaScript and scrolling to control when a video
plays. The setting you are referring to probably controls autoplay options set
from HTML. I doubt any kind of setting in Firefox would disable JavaScript
controlling videos as that would break custom controls.

~~~
function_seven
> I doubt any kind of setting in Firefox would disable JavaScript controlling
> videos as that would break custom controls.

True, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing. I usually prefer the default
controls on HTML5 video players to whatever the site wants to cook up.
Somewhat similar to scroll bars and form elements. Native, please.

~~~
lemevi
You could probably achieve what you want with an extension.

------
Ntrails
Sorry for off topic...

Is there a way to allow myself to select text on this website? I find it hard
to read on screens without and it's bugging the hell out of me.

------
jchomali
Great article!

