By 2017, roughly a third of all shark species were nearing extinction.

Scientists estimate that more than ninety million sharks are killed every year for their fins.

Most of the worldвЂ™s fish stocks are in crisis from overfishing.

Ocean boundaries are not clear, which is why one of every five fish on dinner plates is caught illegally and the global black market for seafood is worth more than $20 billion.

How whales are now outsmarting fishing boats and taking fish off of their long-lines, while ships take so much krill it is decimating their populations and the food whales eat. ItвЂ™s also about the hard life and culture of the poor men on fishing boats, the corruption and bribery at ports, stolen ships and those who try to find and take them back, the many ways cruise lines pollute oceans, and massive amounts of nuclear and other toxic wastes are secretly dumped. This book is about much more than overfishing. Fuel costs typically eat up at least 60% of a long-haul vesselвЂ™s earnings, double what it did two decades ago. Globally, so many fish have been caught that fishing boats have to venture farther just to break even. Peak oil will also dramatically reduce climate change, warming oceans, acidification, declining oxygenation from eutrophication, and toxins - all of which favor jellyfish and threaten a tipping point where theyвЂ™ll take over the oceans and fish grow even scarcer. Only then will the slaughter stop and the enslavement of fishing crews end as ships run out of fuel to journey to the end of the Earth to get the last fish.

A bit depressing, but if youвЂ™re upset about overfishing and the enslaved fishermen trapped for years on scuzzy boats Urbina met, my other posts about peak oil should cheer you up.

This is a book review of UrbinaвЂ™s вЂњThe Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed FrontierвЂќ.

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