Modern Slavery on Asia’s Fishing Boats

How fishing boats in Thailand have become hotbeds of piracy, kidnapping, slavery, and murder-all for the end product of cheaper seafood in grocery stores is explored with New York Times journalist, Ian Urbina. Human trafficking on the lawless high seas of Asia, and the dangers of overfishing the oceans is detailed in this Lip News interview, hosted by Jackie Koppell.

Read Ian Urbina’s New York Times article on human trafficking aboard Thailand’s fishing boats here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/27/world/outlaw-ocean-thailand-fishing-sea-slaves-pets.html

Guest Bio

Before joining The New York Times, Ian Urbina was in a doctoral program in history and anthropology at the University of Chicago, where he specialized on Cuba. As a Fulbright scholar he did his doctoral dissertation research in Havana. He left the doctoral program early to join the Times in 2003. Mr. Urbina is currently an investigative correspondent for the Washington Bureau of The New York Times. Previously, he was a reporter on the Times Metro desk. In 2005, he became national desk’s mid-Atlantic bureau chief, where he covered the West Virginia coal mining disasters, the Gulf oil spill, the Virginia Tech shootings and various other breaking stories.

He was a member of the team of reporters that broke the story about then-New York Governor, Eliot Spitzer and his use of prostitutes, a series of stories for which the Times won a Pulitzer in 2009.

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Episode Breakdown

00:01 Welcoming Ian Urbina to The Lip News.

01:35 Why it’s difficult to enforce laws on the high seas.

02:45 Piracy and murder on small cargo ships.

05:00 Human trafficking and indentured servants.

08:18 Finding and interviewing captains of transshipping boats.

15:30 “The Thunder” and over fishing.

19:47 Ways to police the oceans.

23:15 Thank you and goodbye.

Guest Bio

He was a member of the team of reporters that broke the story about then-New York Governor, Eliot Spitzer and his use of prostitutes, a series of stories for which the Times won a Pulitzer in 2009.