Hi Folks,
I’m thrilled to announce that on June 4th, 2025, we will release Season 2 of the Outlaw Ocean Podcast. It’s an anthology that covers a variety of topics, including our investigation of the EU’s role in capturing migrants on the Mediterranean Sea and sending them back to notoriously brutal prisons in Libya. The series also offers a deep-dive into China’s role as the superpower of seafood and the variety of human rights and environmental crimes hidden within the production of this vital global commodity. We take listeners on a mission in Greece, shadowing a maritime repo man who has been hired by banks to steal a ship and secret it out to the high seas. We also head to India for an exploration of some of the hidden costs behind the world’s largest shrimp producer.
Every Wednesday, starting this week, we’ll push out a new episode detailing a variety of issues and colorful characters. This immersive audio documentary series brings together more than eight years of reporting at sea on all seven oceans and more than three dozen countries.
You can listen to the episodes as they come out by clicking here:
This season is being released in collaboration with CBC Podcasts. For a fuller preview of each episode, here are short synopses:
Three-part series about Libya and a war on migration, funded by the EU:
The Libyan Coast Guard is doing the European Union’s dirty work, capturing migrants as they attempt to cross the Mediterranean into Europe and throwing them in secret prisons. There, they are extorted, abused and sometimes killed. An investigation into the death of Aliou Candé, a young farmer and father from Gineau-Bisseau, puts the Outlaw Ocean team in the cross-hairs of Libya’s violent and repressive regime. In this stunning three-part series, we take you inside the walls of one of the most dangerous prisons, in a lawless regime where the world’s forgotten migrants languish.
The grandfather of white collar piracy:
Depending on who you ask, Max Hardberger is either a seagoing James Bond or a swashbuckling pirate. Hardberger runs a rare kind of repo service, extracting huge ships from foreign ports. His company is a last resort for ship owners whose vessels have been seized, often by bad actors, and over the years he’s built a reputation for taking the kinds of jobs others turn down. Hardberger’s specialty is infiltrating hostile territory and taking control of ships in whatever way he can – usually through subterfuge and stealth. Whatever part of the world his missions take him, Hardberger thrives in its grey areas.
The shrimp factory whistleblower:
What started off as a dream job, slowly revealed itself to be a nightmare. Josh Farenello moved to southern India to oversee a shrimp-processing plant, but it soon dawned on him that he’d been really been hired as an American face to “whitewash” a forced-labour factory. The largely female employees were effectively trapped on the compound, routinely underpaid, and forced to live in inhumane, unsanitary conditions. Over several months, Josh meticulously gathered evidence that he brought to the Outlaw Ocean team for this exclusive exposé.
The undisputed superpower of the seas:
Spread across the Earth’s oceans, the Chinese distant-water fishing fleet is the single largest armada in human history. This three-part series is an unprecedented investigation into their secretive fishing practices. The fleet is so gargantuan that even the Chinese government can’t account for all its vessels. We do know it has hauled in more than 35 billion dollars worth of catch per year and sold it across the globe — and yet, almost nothing was known about its practices. That is, until the Outlaw Ocean team started asking questions, and eventually managed to get aboard.
The hidden cost of seafood:
Spread across the Earth’s oceans, the Chinese distant-water fishing fleet is the single largest armada in human history. This three-part series is an unprecedented investigation into their secretive fishing practices. The fleet is so gargantuan that even the Chinese government can’t account for all its vessels. We do know it has hauled in more than 35 billion dollars worth of catch per year and has sold it across the globe — and yet, almost nothing was known about its practices. That is, until The Outlaw Ocean team started asking questions, and eventually managed to climbget aboard a dozen Chinese vessels to investigate.
The untold plight of North Korean workers:
Spread across the Earth’s oceans, the Chinese distant-water fishing fleet is the single largest armada in human history. This three-part series is an unprecedented investigation into their secretive fishing practices. The fleet is so gargantuan that even the Chinese government can’t account for all its vessels. We do know it has hauled in more than 35 billion dollars worth of catch per year and has sold it across the globe — and yet, almost nothing was known about its practices. That is, until The Outlaw Ocean team started asking questions.