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| Please join me in supporting Ian Urbina’s new non-profit op for covering maritime affairs, the law of the ocean and other matters that affect 80 percent of the world’s surface but remain largely untouched by journalists. Ian’s series in the Times and his book, The Outlaw Ocean, are superb examples of excellent maritime reporting — the best it gets, ever. Those of you who buy the book will find more insight and excitement in the Preface than most books manage at full length. Ian is one part Mellville, one part Plimsoll and one part Indiana Jones. He is a triple threat — a policy wonk when appropriate but also a superb writer who who travels half way around the globe to hitch rides on fishing slave vessels — with no set time for return. (Or guarantee for that matter.) He deserves your attention and if you can, your support here. ———————————————————– From Ian: I wanted to update you on some exciting developments with The Outlaw Ocean. The book release was seemingly a great success, with lots of generous reviews you can check out here. Also, after 17 years on staff at The New York Times, I’ve decided to move to being a contract writer for them so I can double down for another five-year round of reporting about this lawless frontier. Toward that end, I’ve created a small non-profit to try to fund the reporting, which is costly. Should you like to contribute, you can find my donation page here. Part of my motivation in making this move was so that I could focus exclusively on this journalistically barren realm. In that vein, I’ve hit the ground running. Over the past three months, this reporting has appeared in The Guardian, The Irish Times, The Atlantic and a special platform created by Google. I’m recently back from sea off the coast of South Korea reporting for NBC News. After that, I went to The Gambia for a piece for Nat Geo. Next up: I’ll be at sea near Libya for The Atlantic. I was also asked to testify before Congress just last week, and you can watch my opening thoughts here. So, we are wasting no time. The firm, Synesthesia Media, that’s handling the global book tour is hoping to hold events in Vancouver, D.C., Tokyo and Dublin. If you know of any NGOs, universities or other org that might be interested in helping support, please drop me a note. Thanks, Ian |
| The Outlaw Ocean, 5636 Connecticut Ave NW, P.O. Box 6315, Washington, D.C 20015-9998 |