The Broken Economics of the Oceans

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Writing by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy
Editing by Alexander Williard
Animation led by Josh Sherrington
Sound by Graham Haerther
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster
References
[1] www.researchga...
[2] www.marineregi...
[3] nteconomy.nt.g...
[4] www.scientific...
[5] ainsworthinsti...
[6] www.genome.gov...
[7] www.bbc.com/fu...
[8] www.sciencedir...

[@zagray2305]

Wendover when he finds something a little more than half as interesting:

[@benbluestone]

And then the mf goes and makes it interesting

[@Guitarocker493]

This is at least 2/3 as interesting

[@bababababababa6124]

@@Guitarocker493nah I’d say maybe 3 fifths interesting

[@deleted-something]

Ye

[@noobartz0890]

full as interesting

[@cheikhoudiallo1560]

I am from Mauritania and it's unbelievable how the fish stocks went down in the past 25 years. fish used to be pleintiful, of quality and super cheap, now after a few years in US, I come back home and fish is as expensive as beef. mind you our population is only 4 millions, we had so much fish that no matter how much of it we fish we simply could not put a dent on it. back home when we were young, we used to hear local fishermen talking about meeting huge foreign boats in the high sea that took all the fish, it all makes sense now. not fair at all

[@oldmandoinghighkicksonlyin1368]

Do something about then...go and sink some Chinese fishing boats.

[@Turkolini]

It isn't fair at all. It's selfish of the Chinese fishermen to do this shit and the United States and NATO navies really should do more to stop it

[@cuthomas4664]

Chinese illigal fishing industry has pushing everything into the edge of colapse. From the marine resourse to the livehood of million fishermans from smaller nations. China must be stop

[@jamestang1227]

@@Turkolini Before the Chinese it was the Europeans buying those contracts allowing them to fish in Mauritanian waters (since their own waters aren't rich enough anymore for the giant factory ships). In fact, they still might be doing it I'm not sure. The Chinese are only the newest player in giant deep water fleets, the Soviets and Japanese pioneered it in the 60s.

[@RealAfricanPatriot]

@@jamestang1227 do you have any proof of "european" being anywhere comparable in scale to what chinese are doing now Mr. Wumao?

[@Indikissa]

The phrase "There are plenty of fish in the sea" is about to lose its meaning

[@Praisethesunson]

There is still lots of squid. They like climate change, for now.

[@fredio54]

This has not been true in your lifetime unless you're about 70 or older...

[@aaronmccann4431]

*loose

[@jghifiversveiws8729]

Peak fish has already ocurred. There's been a 15% decline in saltwater fish catch since 1996.

[@underworld13]

​@@aaronmccann4431correcting someone and getting it wrong in the correction... Oh boy

[@Gary-zq3pz]

I recall a story called 'The Ape that ate the World' where massive trawlers are scraping the silt off the ocean floor, sifting the mud for any organic life. In the story, blue-green algea and krill are both critically endangered, being the only life left in the oceans.

[@GeorgeMonet]

That sounds very similar to Soylent Green, or the book it was adapted from calling No Room! No Room!

[@westrim]

Man, it'd be a real shame if hundreds of ships started disappearing in international waters. I mean, with their transponders off there's no way to tell where they even were! Who would their government even talk to about finding out what happened!? A tragedy for sure.

[@user-fb1vm4uo1u]

You'd create mass starvations for many countries lol

[@Lucas-sk5iy]

@@user-fb1vm4uo1uoh well

[@ShapezPuller64]

Compared to the starvation coming when they collapse fish stocks in parts of the world they don't even occupy? Booo your centrism. Your intolerance for immediate vi*lence has left you blind to the long term vi*lence of ecocide.

[@bryan6090]

@@user-fb1vm4uo1u and ? how is that our problem . We would give a shit if you guys stopped ILLEGALLY INVAIDING our water and STEALING our fish. Fix your own dam problems and perhaps after you stop being apart of ours we would start caring

[@haganame1240]

@@user-fb1vm4uo1u If they kill sharks only for fins they don't deserve food. These countries need to control these people or lose them.

[@chinguunerdenebadrakh7022]

The Somali pirate crisis started from a related source. Many of their people were reliant on fishing for food and income. Then the civil war came, the government collapsed and took with it, any body capable of protecting Somali waters. Foreign fishing vessels came in and overfished the area. This led to fishing communities becoming impoverished and taking to one of the few lucrative (but high risk) activities to make money which was piracy.

[@stoutyyyy]

toxic waste dumping too. Just completely decimated local fish stocks leaving nothing but crime as an option.

[@studytime2570]

Indonesian Fisherman should've access to aus waters..

[@studytime2570]

It has been their traditional fishing grounds since centuries..

[@stoutyyyy]

@@studytime2570 no, they absolutely should not. Australia is a sovereign nation with the right to defend its own territorial waters. Literally what in this video makes you think it’s remotely a good idea to let Indonesian fishermen into Aus?

[@wolfmantroy6601]

They should have protected their fishing grounds with the same force they use to pirate ships.

[@jamessimon2002]

These fleets are absolutely destroying the Galapagos. It's insane.

[@sietzezeggelaar6171]

No really now? isn't that like the point of the entire video 😅

[@boringperson-zb8vy]

​@@sietzezeggelaar6171nothing wrong with commenting. Misplaced criticism, I think

[@cubiss1273]

​@@boringperson-zb8vy Nothing wrong with responding. Misplaced criticism, I think

[@thetechnomancer2464]

@@cubiss1273 Nothing wrong with defending. Misplaced criticism, I think

[@verlax8956]

@@sietzezeggelaar6171 Nothing wrong with responding. Misplaced criticism, I think

[@dCash117]

I think you got the pound/ kilo conversion backwards. A kilo would cost 2.2 times a much as a pound

[@akshaysinghyahoo]

Yup. Came here to point the same thing out.

[@edenaut]

@@akshaysinghyahoo you are so smart

[@colinmartin9797]

Ayo that's going in the next year's corrections, lol

[@tbob1baum754]

Came here for That too

[@erosel81]

Same

[@jghifiversveiws8729]

Wendover should definitely do a video on sand mining now. Sand is one of the most heavily trafficked illicit substances on the planet and entire beaches have been illegally wiped out by miners all over the world, and don't even get me started on the Indian Sand Mafias/cartels. Sand mining has devastated the Yellow river basin and Poyang lake in China, the Mekong delta in Cambodia and Vietnam and plenty of other countries. Sand is increadibly vital to our high tech civilization, without it we wouldn't have glass, the internet, computer chips, cement, and a myriad of other things but it's still not talked about enough.

[@Qureas]

Hasn't he done a video on sand already? Or did I see that somewhere else?

[@Krill_all_health_insuranceCEOs]

Couldn't we just get sand from shallow sea floors?

[@yourdeadboii3728]

Not all sand are usable​@@Krill_all_health_insuranceCEOs

[@Stpcjit]

@@Krill_all_health_insuranceCEOsand destroy marine life?

[@michealsharkey5016]

As an Irish Subscriber for many years, I never opened a video so fast, brilliant watch. Hopefully your upload of this video brings this to an audience who may not have heard of this before.

[@jasper4574]

Sad to see how much biodiversity is being effectively sentenced to death in the oceans. Thank you sam and the team for bringing light to another important issue!

[@TheLoxxxton]

Yeah but who doesn't love a bit of fish?

[@jasper4574]

@@TheLoxxxton I Love fish too! Im saying that overfishing is an issue.

[@surfingmindwaves]

Go vegan everyone. Seriously, the world needs to transition to a plant-based diet. The complete disregard for other life that we humans have is absolutely horrendous. We're destroying so much of the earth because we do not respect other living beings. The sooner entire countries transition to eating plants instead of the flesh of other animals the better. There are amazing vegan fish alternatives now. Give them a try, trust me, you won't be able to tell the difference.

[@Thros1]

​@@surfingmindwavesplants are living things just like everything else

[@surfingmindwaves]

@@Thros1 Plants are living but unlike animals (such as us) they are not sentient and are not capable of feeling pain since they do not have a central nervous system or a brain.

[@mondo_stunts27]

On the topic of sea nodules, they found the marks in the sea floor they made lasted decades and did not get leveled and washed away like they thought. Suggesting it’s more static and more vulnerable than we even originally thought.

[@Praisethesunson]

Let's drill it to get minerals for consumer garbage deliberately designed not to last. For money!! -Capitalism

[@sagetmaster4]

Good thing most of these environments are practically void of life and are some of the least biodiverse places on the planet. Obviously we can't mine anywhere there are nodules without looking into the environmental impact but it's very likely that this type of mining will in fact be less damaging that any other kind of mining

[@timothywatson6488]

@@sagetmaster4 we don't even know if there is an ecosystem there cause we've basically not explored it. So no-one knows if this could affect other ecosystems in the ocean

[@timothywatson6488]

@@cancermcaids7688 I'm not some greeny but I think destroying the recyclers of the ocean could have some devastating impact on ocean life as we know that after decades of time they don't recover

[@sagetmaster4]

We're talking about like one one thousandth of a percent of the total area of the ocean floor. If it is at the depth of the abyssal plains (~11,000 feet) that is literally the single largest ecosystem in terms of areal extent and as of yet fairly undisturbed by humans Also bottom trawling fishing boats are literally scraping the bottom of the ocean in much more shallow and productive habitat and destroying it for decades, let's worry about those and try and deep sea mine safely

[@kiancuratolo903]

I was first introduced to the problems of large international shipping vessel back when I was watching River monsters as a kid, just seeing how disheartened he would get whatever he saw them show up and realized he wouldn't find anything there and that it was ruining the local fishermen

[@Leon_George]

That was a brilliant show.

[@onewomanarmy6451]

Oh yeah! I knew about it prior to me watching that show, I'm probably older than you and I was a very nature and eco focused child, but yeah to see the big vessels in the background of a show/program that wasn't about the ecological damage/human suffering the excessive and damaging fishing practices cause was like a hot coal dropping into my stomach. Because the show wasn't meant to feature the subject we got to catch a glimse of an "every day" and it made it so much more real to me for some reason. I had completely forgotten about that but reading your comment brought some quite clear memories to the surface and they made quite some impact on me as a kid. I'm so glad they kept those sections in, thanks for the reminder.

[@Uhaneole]

If the Chinese and other countries fishing industry find loopholes in the rules, change the rules/close the loopholes/be more aggressive with punishments. I’m sure after a few of the vessels catch high explosives instead of fish they’ll at least return to their normal waters.

[@ElusiveTy]

'Rules' and law have never curtail the Chinese since the CCP took over the country. The issue is enforcement, the international community doesn't want to enforce it because they've allowed themselves to become reliant on China.

[@Carewolf]

You can also just arrest them, but only densely populated western countries currently have the resources to do that at the moment.

[@armandoventura9043]

​@@ElusiveTy That is a problem for China in general, the old dynasties and the republic before the CCP were just as abusive towards their neighbors

[@Willcism]

Thank you so much for making this video! I work for a global ocean conservation organization on our fisheries and sustainabe seafood team - this was farily comprehensive and presented in such a captivating and interesting way. Loved it!

[@richardnavratil9661]

Sam is the "bringing-you-the-depressing-info-you-didn't-know-existed" alternative to Last Week Tonight when the writers are on strike. Thanks for fueling our despair for our future! :D

[@chazzbranigaan9354]

Last week tonight is a thing still? Holy soy

[@caulds989]

And unlike last week tonight, well-researched and somewhat unbiased

[@longislandlegoboy]

@@chazzbranigaan9354Do silly people still use soy as an insult?

[@racecarrik]

​@@longislandlegoboydid people ever use soy as an insult? Spanish speakers must've been real confused 😅

[@chazzbranigaan9354]

@@longislandlegoboy grown adult with a cartoon profile picture doesn't understand why soy is an insult 🤣 color me unsuprised

[@MysteriousSlip]

Wow, I love the way you connected the "tragedy of the commons" to international fishing to the future of space resources. Hugely thought provoking and extremely well done. Kudos.

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

​@@cancermcaids7688 You'd think so, but no. First of all it costs a lot to get those space resources. That's why even water is a big problem despite that we have more than we'd ever need in the oceans (desalination is known technology). But even more interesting is that we actually already have infinite, nearly free, assets - virtual goods. Even before the 'metaverse', there was Second Life, as well as just so many online games. The stuff in these worlds costs near nothing to make, be it virtual land or just microtransactions. Just a tiny bit of extra servers needed for a massive expansion of everything there. Guess what? None of it is free, or dirt cheap, as it should be. Cos you can't extract value from abundance. So we artificially restrict it, so as to put a price on it. It costs basically nothing for a company to give out copies of any of its microtransactions to even the entire population of the world, let alone just its players. But they don't. They charge sometimes ridiculous prices for them. The reason Zuck was so stuck on the metaverse was also cos of its enormous potential for creating a virtual economy that it could extract money from like a goddamn landlord or property bureau, despite that it could have limitless virtual land for free.

[@stoutyyyy]

At least there's no ecosystem to destroy with asteroid mining

[@pluspiping]

I disagree about the connection. "The Tragedy of the Commons" is a theoretical idea about individuals overusing a shared resource in their own interest. Overfishing is about an economy that always expects more profit, faster, in a finite world, and doesn't care if the resource it's exploiting is common (legally theirs) or not. If you wanted to tie this idea back to the old Western idea of The Commons, it'd be more like a landlord demanding peasants farm and harvest more and more produce without giving them access to more land. It's not the peasants' fault for trying to survive. It's not an inevitable destruction of the resource. It's entirely the greed of the powerful.

[@ElusiveTy]

@@cancermcaids7688 Once upon a time, people thought Earth's resources were infinite too. The universe is very large, we don't even know HOW large, but resources no doubt will also be finite there.

[@gooSquirrel]

@@pluspiping It also doesn't hurt that the idea of the Tragedy of the Commons was thought up by a eugenicist who thought humans had no inherent value unless being exploited or used, the core idea was ahistorical and had basically no basis in any research other than the author's idea that humans were overpopulated and should thus be culled to prevent such issues. And advocated for privatization despite the closest historical analogy being England's Enclosure- an appropriation of communally managed village and town lands by armed nobility, the state itself, and wealthy landowners during the transition towards capitalist modes of production.

[@TheGrinningViking]

You see a ship with spikes on the side, the ship doesn't stop when you ask twice, you sink the ship and throw out lines for the fishers to catch. Then you add an extra charge for failing to obey a lawful order and one for threatening coastguard vessels. Edit: I disagree with both the people in the replies equating spotting a vessel COVERED IN SPIKES, asking them to stop, warning them when they don't stop, and only then sinking the ship at range and fishing the men out so they don't die as being murder. AND I disagree with the people going "yehaw murder them all." You don't let the ship go because a ship can be used over and over again, is expensive, and it's literally being used by fleeing criminals. You DO make an example of the LIVING fishermen in court so the next ones don't NEED to be sunk. Laws preventing overfishing are good laws. Laws protecting territory are necessary laws that can be good. Two warnings and doing everything you can to preserve human life while still stopping it is VERY good, actually.

[@kitsunekaze93]

nah, just let them drown

[@jeremywerner9489]

Treat them as what they are: foreign intruders into sovereign waters.

[@edwinhuang9244]

And then watch as it turns into a PR disaster and a diplomatic incident. "Warship fires upon fishermen" - A News Story "You killed our people" - Foriegn country spokesperson

[@jlight7346]

⁠@@edwinhuang9244Too bad, so sad. Just record the radar/gps data. There are definitely a number of ways to prove they were trespassing and also illegally fishing. Not my fault if they get hurt in the sinking. The same MUST be applied to Chinese vessels. They are actively supported by their government and they have the backing of their navy when it’s close enough to intervene. China doesn’t give a damn about what you say. They care about what you do. Start sinking their ships abroad and they’ll finally give ground. Making them lose face is the only way to motivate them.

[@Tokru86]

@@edwinhuang9244 "Our fishermen have been illegaling fishing in your waters and we haven't heard of them in 1 week. Do you happen to know something?" "Nope, our patrols haven't encountered anyone."

[@MrIsleNFair]

Indonesian here, and IUU regulation is severely still underestimated in our government's eyes, development wise. Regardless of our moves to blow ships, keep in mind that monthly we could only capture 25 -

[@hafidzgi]

b-b-b-but we need a new capital🥺👉👈

[@robertlee6338]

Indonesian politicians makes a lots of money by taking bribes, so as far as China is concerned they are legally fishing

[@zehberaldo]

The storytelling of this is fantastic. Thanks for bringing such important subject that I was totally unaware of. Great job, dude!

[@dr.batman2530]

Kudos to James Cameron. He specifically kept the plot point of pharmaceutical value of marine life leading to overexploitation and poaching in Avatar 2.

[@spadecake]

In reality they wouldn't win to defend their land.

[@Praisethesunson]

@@spadecake In reality our capitalist overlords are going to kill us all before space travel is relevant

[@silverhawkscape2677]

​@@spadecakeNah. They could for now since all they were facing were either scouting forces, Pathfinder or just Whalers who would rather prefer to avoid direct conflict.

[@ASlickNamedPimpback]

@@silverhawkscape2677 No, just in general. It's ridiculous the levels of incompetence the RDA shows. Any company with its own army worth its salt would have gone the way of the East India Company and either integrate or wipe out the natives.

[@EchoBuildsThings]

@@spadecakethey didn’t. They just sank a boat, and at what cost?

[@balpreetsingh6834]

So, the HAI mistakes have crossed over to Wendower now. 500/pound and 225/kg.

[@Nblem7]

Yeah i heard that too

[@percevilleburns7100]

I was wondering how a killo cost less than a pound

[@Spartan086]

@@percevilleburns7100same here

[@Djuntas]

Who the f... cares. Stop being such spelling nazi's or whatever...

[@James_3000]

This nigga pumping out bangers lately

[@geomous2173]

Love when agencies are created to allow countries to do whatever they want by doing nothing

[@yes0r787]

I hate it.

[@elideaver]

The base state of the world is complete anarchy; literally anything other than that is a triumph of diplomacy

[@sheeplord4976]

@@elideaver I think you mean "diplomacy by other means". There is a reason china has so many anti-ship missiles. They understand this 'diplomacy' well, as it is the only language they speak.

[@Trump2024asw]

When literally doing nothing would have helped more... Nope I'm sure this occurrence is rare.

[@Trump2024asw]

​@@elideaverAnarchy open market anarchy at least is a triumph of diplomacy.

[@deanmacy8291]

It blows my mind that there are no regulations on undersea mining. Super interesting video, thank you for putting in the time!

[@HYv47]

Wendover videos make me very informed and I care about an issue for about a week and then I forget everything when I try to bring it up in a future conversation

[@jess_o]

Why are fishing companies able to turn off their boats' tracking with impunity? It ought to automatically be treated as a defacto pursuit to break intl laws, unless proven otherwise, and their company fined harshly.

[@hchskxnbcj]

Another example of not beeing able to enforce laws. Most developing countries don't have a well enough founded coast guard to notice a vessel going dark. You could always say that you had a power outage or that the ais was broken or that there were no ships in proximity able to convey the signal. Basically impossible to prove without massive resources poured in

[@adampetten1009]

it is in Canada/ USA... China does not care

[@TheHamburgler123]

Because "what are you gonna do about it?", essentially. The only party that could issue fines to these companies is the Chinese government but these illegal fishing operations are state sponsored.

[@CRneu]

it's impossible to enforce.

[@adampetten1009]

@CRneu it's actually very easy to, if the boat is at sea and it goes off fine the owner. That's how it works for us.

[@christopherdunstan4663]

Unbelievable I was a professional fisherman from western Australia I fished for 12 years I'm so disappointed in society even our prawn trawlers kill a shit load of dollar fish and everything else that gets crushed when you have over a tonne of prawns fish etc the list goes on and on Our trawlers are tiny compared to the Chinese super trawlers their massive as I couldn't even begin to imagine how much shit they pull up in one of their nets 😬

[@shaun469]

Yeah ex fisherman here too. Spent some time on tuna longliners out of albany. They say finning sharks is illegal. Well um.

[@felixw19]

Asteroid mining isn't a perfect analogy for the environmental problems of deep sea mining, because there just isn't an environment in space.... Environmental protection is done to protect the diversity of life, but in space there is no life to protect.

[@jasonreed7522]

There isn't any proven life to protect, but since we are actively searching we still need to avoid contamination of locations with a high probability of sustaining life. Also we count as life in space, you don't want to accidentally drop a large asteroid onto earth. Not to mention the risk of space junk making space very difficult to traverse. Its still a bad analogy, as in space most reasonable target asteroids for mining are sufficiently devoid of life to be the least environmentally concerning way to mine important raw resources.

[@jlight7346]

@@jasonreed7522Asteroids aren’t even really a great source of raw materials anyway. They make up an extremely small percentage of total mass (even when not counting the sun, which is like 99% of all mass in the system) and they’re all over the place. Very few pass close to Earth and fewer have a similar velocity. It doesn’t make much sense to try and capture them or bring back all that ore over vast distances when we have a giant rock only a few days away from us. The moon is a far better candidate for mining. It’s metal rich and it has water ice which can be turned into rocket fuel. The likelihood of life existing there is also next to zero so there isn’t much worry there anyway.

[@hchskxnbcj]

​@@jasonreed7522even if there would be life it would have no impact on humans / the earth which makes it different from deep sea mining

[@Boe_Jidens_Hair_Sniffing]

I'm pretty sure he said the legality of it and the regulatory bodies are the same, I don't remember him saying anything about the environmental factor of astro-mining

[@bearmugs1408]

Even though we can't confirm the existence of other life in space, mining asteroids may indirectly affect possible life. Like a domino effect. It's unlikely but still possible.

[@xxghost_sniperxx950]

This is one of my favorite videos of yours ever, great work!

[@tuskiomisham]

Sounds like we need more effective interdiction methods.

[@ReggieMarshale]

"Some men are alive simply because it is against the law to kill them" - E. W. Howe

[@craigfeaster9535]

I remember watching a video about mining manganese nodules off of the sea bed with a Howard Hughes backed ship called the Glomar Explorer. Which really was collecting a sunken Soviet Nuclear sub off of the seabed.

[@Praisethesunson]

That is definitely the plot for a James Bond villain

[@craigfeaster9535]

And yet something the CIA did in real life.

[@jimskywaker4345]

@@craigfeaster9535 honestly that's so clever i'm not even mad

[@francisblincoe1315]

@@Praisethesunson The entire supertanker/Stromberg plotline in The Spy Who Loved Me is loosely based on Project Jennifer (Azorian)

[@ErikPelyukhno]

This is an incredible documentary. The storytelling is captivating, the images of industrial scale fishing is fascinating and I’m excited to see how these laws shake out in the future.

[@peterkratoska4524]

Highly recommend the podcast The outlaw ocean. Not only does it cover the overfishing but also the modern slave trade. There's actually more people enslaved in these offshore fleets than there were the Americas at the height of the slave trade.

[@txxshadowxxt]

Plow through the wooden boats. Come into my territory, you'll find out not too

[@benmcreynolds8581]

It's beyond frustrating that things we KNOW are occuring & are ruining our Ecosystems environment YET no one in any position of power is ACTUALLY doing anything about it. All these fishery's are being uniquely destroyed by huge fishing ships. Putting all the mom and pop local living people out of business who fished within the Ecosystems recoverable ability scale. To add icing on the cake: here in Oregon, I've seen the pricing of certain things, crab, salmon, etc. Skyrocketing and so much just isn't being bought by consumers and completely going to waste. Its at a unsustainable point and it will hit a tipping point here VERY SOON. Look at the havoc that was done to the Nova Scotia island communities, Greenland, Iceland locals, etc. Their livelihood is being ruined by these fishing corporations and lack of anyone doing anything about it. Our quality of life is in a lot of trouble and we depend on our environment ecosystem to flourish for us to flourish. Sadly most of us will learn that the hard way.. unless people in power maje serious changes. Soon!

[@Praisethesunson]

Those in power act to keep plundering the world because that rewards them. The system(capitalism) is the problem. The ghouls at the top are doing what rewards them.

[@ForOne814]

@@Praisethesunson yeah, bud, sorry to tell you, the commies didn't care for the environment at all. Subjugating nature for the proletariat to exploit is kind of their whole schtick.

[@G3o0]

You are the person in power. Go vegan.

[@jghifiversveiws8729]

I fear for Greenland, once the sand and mineral miners make their way to that country it will be decimated.

[@MrGeforcerFX]

@@jghifiversveiws8729 they descend from vikings, god help anyone who fucks around in there waters.

[@McPebbster]

Touching on the seascape, I wanted to suggest a topic for a future video. The logistics behind a container making it from one place in the world to another, getting passed from ship to ship to ship to ship etc. Appears to be a very complex logistical challenge. Right down your alley…

[@FabrisFanatic]

He already did this video.

[@Snarkbar]

Why not use this as a training exercise for the military? Finding ships without transponders sounds like great practice for finding enemy ships in times of war. Plus they could make sure their crews are trained well on gunnery against small targets. Subs could practice tracking and sinking these ships too. Seems like an easy win! :)

[@azaz20244]

target practice? yeah the germans did that during ww2 and it didnt work out too well

[@kingofthend]

@@azaz20244 Who is gonna stop a navy in their own EEZ?

[@n00bist723]

@@azaz20244 Do illegal fishing vessels have a large fleet of warship backing them in a current and active multinational war that I don't know about? If not why did you even make that comparison, kinda makes you look dumb ngl.

[@kitsunekaze93]

@@azaz20244 there is a difference in shooting innocent civilians, vs shooting poachers who are actively destroying the eco-system

[@azaz20244]

@@kitsunekaze93 when did u start caring about the ecosystem? Just this hour?

[@karlsullivan4761]

For some reason I was reminded of playing games like "Age of Empires" and "Age of Empires II" when I was a kid... A lot of people would fish out map areas, and then start throwing insults at each other because of their respective overfishing of certain territories. Sad to see that actual, real-world politics between nations play out much the same today, over real-world resources.

[@watchdealer11]

14:15 imagine your professor didn't release the course outline/syllabus and students get to decide their own assignments and grades! 😂

[@pointlesscine]

4:10 There is no border between Australian and Indonesian waters. There is only a border of EEZs, which is limited to jurisdiction over fishing and other economic activities. For all other purposes, anything outside 24nm (the „contiguous zone“) is the High Seas, and law enforcement may continue their pursuit in this territory and until they are 12nm from the other country’s shore („territorial waters“). If it wanted to, the Australian Navy could chase poachers *almost* back to Indonesia.

[@sneediumminer]

it doesn't make a difference because they can never physically get onto the boat without 1. shooting it to either stop or sink it 2. the boat in question stops to allow itself to be boarded

[@seneca983]

"There is no border between Australian and Indonesian waters. There is only a border of EEZs, which is limited to jurisdiction over fishing and other economic activities." I think you can say that Sam made no mistake here. The terms "Australian waters" and "Indonesian waters" aren't official technical terms so they can easily refer to territorial waters, contiguous zones, or exclusive economic zones depending on context. Also, the jurisdiction over fishing is what matters here.

[@pointlesscine]

​@@seneca983 "jurisdiction over fishing" refers to the right to regulate fishing and assign quotas. It doesn't restrict a state's right to pursue illegal actors (poachers) even outside their EEZ, up to the territorial waters of another country. I agree I may have been to strict. I did have a point though: The inability to do something and the lack of will to do it are two very different things, and arguably a more extensive pursuit of poachers is *possible*. The Australian government just doesn't deem it sensible.

[@somethinglikethat2176]

​@@sneediumminer the Australian Navy stops these ships with a few shots across the bow. It's not the simple run away game described in the video.

[@ExploringAI42]

It's really sad to see the ocean get plundered like this. At this rate it's only really a matter of time before the damage we have caused catches back to us. Doesn't seem realistic to patrol to catch people breaking these rules given the size of the sea. I do think the consequences of getting caught need to be raised. I think it's perfectly fair to sink boats the moment it's clear you are making a run for it.

[@sneediumminer]

patrolling is realistic, the problem is that you have to sink boats that refuse to come into custody, which western navies are afraid of doing patrol ships with radars can track a radius of dozens of miles to catch even small fishing boats, they just aren't allowed to actually use force when they attempt to apprehend obviously illegal vessels

[@myrlyn1250]

​@@sneediumminer Somebody needs to develop a version of spike strips for boats. Disable the engine and just let them sit there until they ask you for help. Then you rescue the people and sink the boat.

[@TheHamburgler123]

​@myrlyn1250 I like the creativity but big commercial vessels almost all exclusively have onboard engines. "Disabling" these from outside the vessel would require putting a big ol hole into the hull lol.

[@CRneu]

"At this rate it's only really a matter of time before the damage we have caused catches back to us. " um..it's already caught up with us. The oceans are dying. Algae blooms and dead waters are causing massive disruptions in marine life. There are massive marine life death events happening every single year now, multiple times a season. We're seeing the hottest ocean temperatures we've ever seen by HUGE margins. The earth is absolutely becoming less habitable and we only have ourselves to blame.

[@myrlyn1250]

@@TheHamburgler123 Doesn't have to be the engine, just the propeller/impeller, although either one would have weed diverters or screens. Just have to figure out a way past those. And I like the idea of blowing a hole in the hull, too! 😉

[@Monsterkey]

Small mistake on your pricing, the lbs and kg cost of shark fins were swapped since there's 2.2lbs per 1kg. Otherwise another phenomenal video

[@MaglevM5]

That's the second time he did that in two back to back videos.

[@MaglevM5]

@@stereomachine oh absolutely he is one of the very best. And I can't think of one of Sam's videos that I didn't like or appreciate or enjoy. I was genuinely surprised that he made such an error.. twice! Hey, we're all human.. 🤷‍♂️

[@gazihalawani]

Maybe they should just sell the shark fins in pounds, break the system.

[@stealthassasin1day291]

Saw all these topics in the news recently over the past weeks and he just summarized all the different issues currently going on in one video. Not bad.

[@WiththegraceofgodHJ]

We can often detect the fisherman using JORN we just need more personnel.

[@halfsourlizard9319]

Sinking the poacher's boat would be far easier than boarding it. Also, it eliminates recidivism ... and lots of paperwork ... and provides food for the sharks and wrecks for artificial reefs.

[@suzuplaza]

its too based for most navies

[@Praisethesunson]

@@suzuplaza Spoken like the alien ghoul you are.

[@Bobspineable]

Then you face the consequences of killing people, that’s still paperwork to be done, in fact probably more.

[@halfsourlizard9319]

@@Bobspineable I mean ... Who's to say how an unregistered rickety wooden boat illegally in Aussie waters ended up at the bottom 🤷‍♀️

[@fort809]

@@Bobspineablenot people, poachers. Big difference

[@sitrilko]

Hi Sam, just stopping to say 'Colorado, river in the red' may be my all time favorite documentary.

[@colinmartin9797]

This is why I've basically stopped eating fish that aren't very, very locally caught, because I know the pacific northwest makes furiously sure that our fish stocks are protected. If a Chinese fishing boat came sailing down the puget sound I'm pretty sure the navy would be... displeased. So when I see a nice foreign species of fish on the menu, I just don't go for it anymore. It sucks because I love fish, but I am lucky in that the pacific northwest also has truly incredible fish to enjoy as well. I just want it to stay that way, and I truly don't understand why that isn't a universal sentiment for us all. Feels more and more like the real cause of ww3 is going to be Taiwan or literally just over fish.

[@PabloPerroPerro]

As long as you consume fish you're contributing to the problem. Consider removing it from your diet.

[@azaz20244]

almost everything you eat these days can be considered ‘unethical’. you cant think about this stuff 247. i have a water bottle in my hand and someone somewhere probably got screwed over in its production. but im just going to drink it and go about my day.

[@colinmartin9797]

@@PabloPerroPerro that's not true in any way. A well maintained population is absolutely sustainable as seen with atlantic cod. Certain fish almost cannot be sustainably consumed, true, like unagi eel, or large long lived predatory fish like bluefin tuna, or unsustainably farmed fish like atlantic salmon. But our pacific salmon stocks, according to NOAA, are thriving due to careful management. Maine lobster is thriving. And some fish in certain areas are terribly invasive and eating them is a good thing, like lionfish in Florida or Asian carp basically anywhere in the US. If you want to spout nonsense, please keep it to yourself. Otherwise, you better cite your damn sources. Responsible resource management is important and implying that's impossible just increases the number of people who don't care about the issue at all. If you want to avoid all fish for your personal views or dietary choices, that's perfectly okay. But don't make up lies to forward an agenda.

[@colinmartin9797]

​@@azaz20244exactly. We will never make progress towards a goal without some level of concession. We've made progress with water bottles using methodical, careful decisions. Bottles now use less plastic, and using them at all is growing less and less common. We can't just ignore ALL of the impacts our decisions make, but making some mindful changes is useful. The biggest impact on practically everything though is not at the consumer level. It's in regulating the massive industries doing the exploitation. If China and some of the other bad actors were forced to stop doing unsustainable fishing, fish prices would go up, yes, and some fishers would lose their jobs (which is why these policies need to also include retraining programs to give those affected a new opportunity) but consumption is almost impossible to affect at an individual level and has to be done through regulatory change. Making water bottle companies use less plastic is infinitely more effective than telling people to not buy bottled water (which you can also impact with education, but the much greater good came from the regulation)

[@Djuntas]

In Denmark there is barely any fish left in supermarkerds. I never eat fish unless I wanna pay insane money at some speciality store. In fact its so bad all salmon is only from Norway or some places in Denmark landbred...No thanks.

[@Fred_uyz]

Gee, this guy is amazing making videos, I wish he would make videos even about topics that may not be that good for this channel, like only half as good

[@matthew_reeves]

Might I suggest a temporary mortarium on the words "massive" and "vast?" Love the vids!

[@Afrologist]

Now you see the importance of containing the Chinese Navy. Also, I feel that asteroid mining would be a wonderful alternative to deep sea mining, mostly because there isn't any ecosystems to protect on a barren rock.

[@TheBfutgreg]

I forgot you can eat rocks from an asteroid

[@qwkl2450]

are you talking about civil navy or military navy? because this video is about normal people overfishing

[@NihongoWakannai]

Yes asteroid mining would be a good alternative! Just like assault rifles are a good alternative to fighting with swords and shields, idk why the romans never thought to use a machine gun.

[@silverhawkscape2677]

​@@qwkl2450Look up CCP maritime Militia.

[@oberonpanopticon]

@@NihongoWakannaiexcept we have the knowledge and technology to pull it off, just not the funding as with most grandiose plans

[@Seed]

2:34 are you sure this is right, isn’t a KG more than a pound.

[@Icipher353]

2.2 pounds to a Kg.

[@fat_bastard215]

Yeah it should be around $3,000 per kg his figure makes no sense

[@Seed]

@@Icipher353 Yeah. He said $500 per pound or $225 per KG

[@jimmobley533]

Wow. I knew the oceans were a problem, but you have opened my eyes to the scale of the problem. Great video.

[@yeetboi268]

it's always the asian, I wonder why?

[@queensburyio4773]

The crazy thing about the ecological impacts of undersea mining is that we have absolutely no idea what's on the bottom of 99.9% of the ocean floor, which is why the UN was like "we should probably make people find out before they start mining operations."

[@Bari_Khan_CEng_CMarEng]

Your documentaries are great, much appreciated. Very good.

[@cptswann]

Thank you! I finally got my Nebula subscription through you! I'm so excited to see more of your content 🤩

[@bigfootgoesboom]

2:34 life hack! Buy your shark fins in kg to get twice as much for half the price😂

[@krissp8712]

Four times the value, hooray!

[@ZadakLeader]

A darker but very important video for sure! Good that you're shedding light on this issue

[@herpderpherpd]

Shark fishing isn't uncommon in Australia. We just have to target sharks under 1.5m. And it's mostly done in estuaries. Bull shark is quite a popular target, they reproduce and grow in the freshwater rivers.

[@Jarvis23713]

I agree with most of this video's points, But I have to say that comparing asteroid mining to deep sea mining is a bit of a far stretch... The whole problem with deep sea mining is that it will Probably be very likely to damage marine life... but what are we supposed to be damaging by mining an asteroid...? There is literally nothing in space to be disturbed by the practice. It would actually be a good alternative for deep sea mining if you think about it (yes, of course only once the cost of doing it in the first place comes down to a level where it is economically viable)

[@EvilAng3la]

This video could also be titled "reasons #74 and #75 that humanity is fucked". The sheer number of things that we've mostly or permanently ruined just seems to keep increasing.

[@nexe9468]

Humanity.. Australia is mentioned with the ban on shark fishing. China, Russia and other bandits are the problem.

[@mundi7177]

I don't even know how are we still alive

[@bruhice6058]

Earth is incredibly resilient, if she came back from the dinosaur asteroid she will come back from man. The sea is the most ruthless of all mistresses

[@sathivv950]

​@@bruhice6058 Reality is the Earth or humanity isn't going anywhere. We are just going to make it a much worse place with incredible amounts of suffering for both people and wildlife.

[@EvilAng3la]

@@bruhice6058 Oh yeah, the planet will bounce back, even if it takes tens of millions of years. But in the timescales humanity deals with is a different question.

[@diet_water479]

Can you do a video on the logistics of philmont scout ranch. They have 50 crews going in and out every day 12 people a crew and they have to keep track of everybody at base camp, on and off the trail, food logistics, itinerary management, and like 1200 seasonal staff. Lots of moving parts it could be really cool.

[@spock81]

Ooh, I second this. They shuffle around 17,000 people through the backcountry in a given summer, ensure that each trek receives supplies at the correct times, maintains an active cattle/bison/horse ranch, and also works to ensure that this is all sustainable and maintains the backcountry for future scouts.

[@diet_water479]

@@spock81 I went recently and our crew leader said when he entered the logistics center they had charts on charts and computers full of information

[@p__wing]

I love basically all of your videos. I'm not sure I've ever learned as much about something I wasn't that invested in learning about. This is weirdly fascinating. Thanks Sam + co!

[@dennismatsson9995]

Ngl if australia just starts opening fire the fishing would probably stop quite quickly. They should definitly look into that

[@Lord_Humungus]

As an Australian, I think the public would support that, we are always against unnecessary cruelty ro animals

[@Tom-yl3gj]

Thanks for pointing out the haircut thing. Looking fresh, mate 👍 Keep up the good stuff and cheer from NL

[@sanjaymatsuda4504]

0:10 Fun fact: "Cordillera" is just the spanish word for "mountain range". So the Cordillera Range is really the "Range Range".

[@TheChrisLeone]

You and Second Thought both uploaded a video this morning, love it

[@gordoneats]

What a horrendous travesty. Thanks for bringing a light to these issues!

[@Adrian-ot1ur]

This was a great essay! Thanks a lot!

[@crunchytoast6007]

Good for you, good for me, bad for us. Didn’t expect the tragedy of the commons to come up outside of Econ class lol

[@bungaIowbill]

Few things make humanity seem as disgusting as just piles and piles of fish out of water

[@oldmandoinghighkicksonlyin1368]

Not humanity, China. They also torture dogs to death because they think it makes their meat tastier. Basically every animal on the planet, China has no regard for. And then there's the pandemics...

[@AdaptorLive]

It's the finned, still alive sharks being thrown back into the ocean for me.

[@Kelvin555s]

The greed runs unbelievable in everywhere. I saw one line back of a car once "In deep we all looking for a zombie apocalypse".

[@Traderbear]

And yet another great video. You’re one of my favorite channels.

[@ShapezPuller64]

"Hey Siri, how do you scuttle an industrial scale fishing ship?"

[@ahkillahjohnson8795]

The background music is phenomenal. Great choice!

[@ShannonDove-sy7ye]

Shouldn't he have included that song about Australia? It would have been fitting because it talks about plundering

[@djinn666]

One major difference between the oceans and space: There's a lot of space. You can ruin entire galaxies and still have billions more to use. Not the case with the ocean.

[@brianjones4194]

Makes sense now why chinese fishing ships are always ramming other boats in the south china sea, the competition is insane.

[@habby4377]

Thankfully we have the 2nd section of the 15th parapgraph of the 1st annex of the 1994 agreement relating to the implemantion of part 11 of the Unitend Nations convention of the Law of the Sea That's some simple naming

[@navyseal1689]

Apparently these laws arent able to stop the 3000 Chinese fishing fleets

[@coloradocrustaceans]

Absolutely fantastic video! Never disappoints

[@cetriyasArtnComicsChannel]

its the audacity of it all, they just straight up go up in other's peoples homes.

[@azaz20244]

can you elaborate? im genuinely confused. Are you talking specifically about fisherman disregarding terrotorial claims?

[@bababababababa6124]

Yeah I don’t quite understand your point

[@robertely686]

If they were American they would call it manifest destiny.

[@zachnuerge]

2:30 "Shark fins often sell for over $500/pound, or over $225/kg." Time to move to Asia, buy shark fins in kg, and sell them in pounds 🤣.

[@FictionHubZA]

Isn't 2 kg like 1 pound? So maybe won't be much of a difference.

[@andrewahern3730]

@@FictionHubZA2.2 lbs ≈ 1 KG

[@FictionHubZA]

@@andrewahern3730 Yeah thanks.

[@sebastienhardinger4149]

The best book about this general phenomenon is Outlaw Oceans, highly recommended

[@goodshipkaraboudjan]

I'll have a look for it, thanks for the recommendation. I recently read "Hooked", it's about an Australian patrol boat that chased a trawler for a month after it was caught fishing in Antarctica. A South African icebreaker ended up joining the chase. Happened about a decade ago.

[@CamillaWebster-h2p]

These fleets are absolutely destroying the Galapagos. It's insane.. Wendover when he finds something a little more than half as interesting:.

[@wilsonsmom411]

I learn so much from these videos. Do you cite your sources anywhere? Or is this “original reporting”?

[@sportsfamily77]

Every nation needs to start sinking these dark fleets on site.

[@Fenderak]

with crew on board

[@Praisethesunson]

That's one way to kick off nuclear war

[@suzuplaza]

@@Praisethesunson fuck around and find out

[@somethinglikethat2176]

​@@ianbritten2516in the case of Australia and Indonesia, most of the ships are sunk due to the bio-hazard risk they pose.

[@jamestang1227]

@@Fenderak A lot of those crew are forced labourers, barely better than slaves, from poorer countries seeking work in China, Taiwan or Japan's fishing fleets before having their passports confiscated and stuck in a tin can with the worst bosses in the world for months on end.

[@CrunchingShark]

They should use a simple rule for illegal fishermen in their local territory: When the looting starts, the shooting starts.

[@GreeceUranusPutin]

We need a resurgence in the torpedo industry.

[@lateefkareem]

great information and nice insight. However, there is a mistake at 2:34. You meant to say 500 dollars per kilogram and 225 dollars per pound.

[@AileneJohannsen-xw5fl]

The most plastic in the ocean is fishing nets and equipment, by far. Best thing if you can manage is not eat fish

[@this_is_patrick]

China try not to steal anything that isn't bolted down challenge (Impossible).

[@pratikharani]

Finally a Wendover Video on the South China Sea! wait its gonna contain airplanes isnt it?

[@joshuacheung6518]

Worse. Logistics.

[@ProfessorTravis]

Bring back privateering YarArgh!

[@JoeRogansForehead]

New Ginuea is where the Japanese learned to be afraid of the people who punch kangaroos

[@pantaloonic]

Absolutely demolished that dude at 16:58

[@Professorkek]

Give the navies of the world something to do. Transponder off = sunk withough investigation. Nothing of value will be lost, things of great value will be saved.

[@samiraperi467]

2:30 Your pounds to kg conversion is the wrong way around.

[@dminter1234]

The U.S. has been policing the Bering Sea for over 40 years. The Coast Guard in conjunction with NOAA patrols the sea with High endurance cutters equipped with helicopters year round. If a ship is found to have violated the regulations as to location, or catch limits, the ship is impounded, the captain is arrested, the crew is deported and the company that owns the ship is banned from fishing these waters for a year.

[@ma_junia]

5:50 the world's favorite locusts strike again 🙄

[@aromaticsnail]

Got to admire the different and innovative ways we as a species accelerate our own extinction

[@The_flying_spy]

Converting freedom units to the metric system isn’t that easy, it seems