Here’s the plan. Next week (12/21), we’ll have a big last-thoughts, and overall discussion thread and talk about expectations. The following week (12/28) we’ll be off because it’s sandwiched between Christmas and New Years and nobody does anything that week. The following Saturday (1/4) will be the first discussion thread for The Meritocracy Trap, which you should grab from an independent book store or Amazon soon.
Now, the last bit of The Outlaw Ocean! We’ve finished as we started, on a Sea Shepard hunt. This one was an unsuccessful pursuit of whalers, but this whole chapter was about whaling and how it’s changed over time.
The Japanese hunted the whales, while Sea Shepard hunted the Japanese. The whales stole the toothfishermen’s meals, while the vacuum boats stole food from the whales.
What do you think about this part about whalers, and the “floating slaughterhouse” of the Nisshin Maru?
And now that we’ve reached the end, what did you make of Urbina’s suggestions on what to do to fix the problems illustrated in the book?
I really loved how this book finished where it started, and I thought the contrast between the two -- the opener of a "successful" pursuit and the closer of an unsuccessful one -- was pretty fitting with the trajectory of the book. I did find it cool how Sea Shepard has more and more allies in the fishing community now, which was really encouraging, but when they were technologically outgunned by the Nisshin Maru it kind of dispelled a lot of that hope.
Man, it's so crummy of them to call the whaling ship a research vessel. I'm going to have trouble getting over that one.
I enjoyed the book though it left me with a feeling of helplessness that things may just never get better. I will definitely be making a few donations to the causes Urbina mentions in the book.
Regarding the Nissan Maru ... I was feeling somewhat sympathetic to the Japanese side of this. There was a legal/moral issue here (were they inside the law, but outside of the spirit of the law?), but I also felt that perhaps they weren’t terrible. They were not whaling as much as they used to, large amounts of the whale was used and little wasted catch, and they weren’t the only nations whaling (others were just doing inside their territorial waters). I got no sense that they were enslaving men on board. In general it felt rather noble. In this instance I felt that Sea Shepard might have been going a bit extreme.
I think the issues raised in the book are probably broken into two: 1) the trouble with ambiguous boundaries (and their lack of respect), and 2) the slavery (or by whatever it is to be called). I think the same issues could be reframed as 1) all of the ocean is connected and is connected (and my country isn’t stopping me), and 2) the difficulties in finding good labor in a increasing complex economy (and I need a job to support my family). (To be clear - slavery is bad, bad, bad - I just see how the master and slave end up in these arrangements.)
Thanks Walt and fellow Numlockers - its been enjoyable. I look forward to the other comments and the next book.
I really loved how this book finished where it started, and I thought the contrast between the two -- the opener of a "successful" pursuit and the closer of an unsuccessful one -- was pretty fitting with the trajectory of the book. I did find it cool how Sea Shepard has more and more allies in the fishing community now, which was really encouraging, but when they were technologically outgunned by the Nisshin Maru it kind of dispelled a lot of that hope.
Man, it's so crummy of them to call the whaling ship a research vessel. I'm going to have trouble getting over that one.
I enjoyed the book though it left me with a feeling of helplessness that things may just never get better. I will definitely be making a few donations to the causes Urbina mentions in the book.
Regarding the Nissan Maru ... I was feeling somewhat sympathetic to the Japanese side of this. There was a legal/moral issue here (were they inside the law, but outside of the spirit of the law?), but I also felt that perhaps they weren’t terrible. They were not whaling as much as they used to, large amounts of the whale was used and little wasted catch, and they weren’t the only nations whaling (others were just doing inside their territorial waters). I got no sense that they were enslaving men on board. In general it felt rather noble. In this instance I felt that Sea Shepard might have been going a bit extreme.
I think the issues raised in the book are probably broken into two: 1) the trouble with ambiguous boundaries (and their lack of respect), and 2) the slavery (or by whatever it is to be called). I think the same issues could be reframed as 1) all of the ocean is connected and is connected (and my country isn’t stopping me), and 2) the difficulties in finding good labor in a increasing complex economy (and I need a job to support my family). (To be clear - slavery is bad, bad, bad - I just see how the master and slave end up in these arrangements.)
Thanks Walt and fellow Numlockers - its been enjoyable. I look forward to the other comments and the next book.