The Outlaw Ocean by Ian Urbina *** (of 4)

This book accomplishes exactly what the author hoped for. As small as the planet seems to have become -- we all share a disease, the internet, What'sApp -- the ocean still covers three-fourths of it, and the activities aboard ships at sea is nigh impossible to scrutinize. Urbina does it for us, fearlessly reporting from ship decks sailing all of the world's seas. His reporting is shocking, but not surprising in the degree to which international law is so easily undermined. 

The world's oceans are a global commons, and much like the atmosphere, available for everyone's abuse, but not in one country's individual interest to police. Fish are taken in illegal quantities and with illegal methods. Uncountable so-called low-quality fish are discarded along with tens of thousands of fin-less sharks. Ship workers from developing countries are beaten, battered, raped, underpaid, and held captive by unscrupulous captains and shipping companies that are corporate shells for other companies, making them invisible to investigators and prosecutors. Old ships, insufficiently inspected, face vicious storms. Pirates attack. 

The Outlaw Ocean's stories feel like a series of expanded upon newspaper articles, which most were, but the reporting is incomparable.