The Outlaw Ocean

Crime and Survival in the Last Untamed Frontier

By: Ian Urbina

Narrated by: Ian Urbina, Jason Culp

Brought to you by Penguin.

The Outlaw Ocean is a riveting, adrenalin-fuelled tour of a vast, lawless and rampantly criminal world that few have ever seen: the high seas.

There are few remaining frontiers on our planet. But perhaps the wildest, and least understood, are the world’s oceans: too big to police, and under no clear international authority, these immense regions of treacherous water play host to the unbridled extremes of human behaviour and activity.

Traffickers and smugglers, pirates and mercenaries, wreck thieves and repo men, vigilante conservationists and elusive poachers, seabound abortion-providers, clandestine oil-dumpers, shackled slaves and cast-adrift stowaways: drawing on five years of perilous and intrepid reporting, often hundreds of miles from shore, Urbina introduces us to the inhabitants of this hidden world and their risk-fraught lives. Through their stories of astonishing courage and brutality, survival and tragedy, he uncovers a globe-spanning network of crime and exploitation that emanates from the fishing, oil and shipping industries, and on which the world’s economies rely.

Both a gripping adventure story and a stunning exposé, this unique work of reportage brings fully into view for the first time the disturbing reality of a floating world that connects us all, a place where anyone can do anything because no one is watching.

(c) 2019, Ian Urbina (P) Penguin Audio 2019

Critic reviews

Gripping and shocking by turns … Most of the book clips along with the pace of a thriller … stomach-churningly tense … as outlandish and as thrilling as a heist film

Just incredible (Naomi Klein)

Urbina has written an astonishing book about a world most of us don't even know exists. These are dispatches from the lawless ocean - of traffickers, slaves, heroes, gangsters, crooks and scoundrels - which will amaze, enthral and appal you (Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland)

Incredible, readable, riveting (Sam Walker)

You simply have to read this (Karen Tumulty)

Staggering (Oliver Franklin-Walles)

[A] remarkable piece of reportage… Gripping, visceral and often deeply shocking

great piece of journalism

Urbina talks the talk and walks the walk. his notes are example of world class journalism - thoughtful, insightful and objective. enjoyed it very much

Could have done with some more editing

There is some good stuff in this book. Some of the stories are honestly shocking. However there are also some boring sections and it is overly long at almost 18 hours. I think they could have trimmed 2 or 3 hours easily.