The Outlaw Ocean Project

Hope Springs Eternal

The Outlaw Ocean Institute is one of the most important parts of the work we do, even if it’s among the least known.

May 8 • Ian Urbina

April 2026

The Outlaw Ocean Testifies Before Congress

We presented key findings from our current investigation focused on the global aquaculture industry and its ties for forced labor, food insecurity…

Apr 17 • Ian Urbina

July 2025

OO Podcast: The North Korean Women Supplying the West With Seafood

In February 2023, Donggang Jinhui Foodstuff, a seafood-processing company in China, threw a party.

Jul 24, 2025 • Ian Urbina

OO Podcast: The Forced Uyghur Labor Behind The Fish You Eat

On a cloudy morning in April 2023, more than eighty men and women, dressed in matching red windbreakers, stood in orderly lines in front of the train…

Jul 16, 2025 • Ian Urbina

OO Podcast: The Undisputed Superpower Of Seafood

Daniel Aritonang graduated from high school in May, 2018, hoping to find a job.

Jul 9, 2025 • Ian Urbina

OO Podcast: The Shrimp Factory Whistleblower

On October 29 2023, a 45-year-old American named Joshua Farinella flew into the city of Amalapuram near India’s eastern coast to start his new job as…

Jul 2, 2025 • Ian Urbina

June 2025

OO Podcast: The Repo Man Of The Seas

In Greece, Max Hardberger posed as an interested buyer, in Haiti as a port official, in Trinidad, a shipper.

Jun 25, 2025 • Ian Urbina

OO Podcast: A team of journalists at gunpoint (Libya Pt. 3)

The first three episodes of Season 2 of The Outlaw Ocean Podcast are now available, and we’re pleased to once again be working with CBC.

Jun 19, 2025 • Ian Urbina

OO Podcast: A War On Migration, Funded By The EU

On February 4, 2021, roughly 70 miles north of Libya, a reconnaissance plane with a camera on its underside circled a raft that was carrying a hundred…

Jun 4, 2025 • Ian Urbina

The Outlaw Ocean Podcast Returns for Season 2

Where the law of the land ends, the story begins

Jun 2, 2025 • Ian Urbina

May 2025

Federal Authorities Take Action on China’s Fishing Fleet

Bad things happened on the Zhen Fa 7.

May 29, 2025 • Ian Urbina and Austin Brush

April 2025

Raking The Waters

In 2015, an infamously-scofflaw fleet of more than 70 bottom trawlers from Thailand fished in the Saya De Malha Bank.

Apr 16, 2025 • Ian Urbina