--- title: The Outlaw Ocean Ep. 9 | Fluid Borders description: In this episode we accompany Ian Urbina on a routine maritime border patrol which rapidly takes a turn for the worse. canonical: https://time.com/6287656/the-outlaw-ocean-ep-9-fluid-borders/ author: Ian Urbina article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-06-15T22:00:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:24:32.614Z article:section: Climate og:title: The Outlaw Ocean Ep. 9 | Fluid Borders og:description: In this episode we accompany Ian Urbina on a routine maritime border patrol which rapidly takes a turn for the worse. og:url: https://time.com/6287656/the-outlaw-ocean-ep-9-fluid-borders/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt735d5b9b5b89df20/698a3df2cabb1db751e517fb/Outlaw_Ep9_Youtube_Thumbail.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1280 og:image:height: 720 og:image:alt: Outlaw_Ep9_Youtube_Thumbail og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Outlaw Ocean Ep. 9 | Fluid Borders twitter:description: In this episode we accompany Ian Urbina on a routine maritime border patrol which rapidly takes a turn for the worse. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt735d5b9b5b89df20/698a3df2cabb1db751e517fb/Outlaw_Ep9_Youtube_Thumbail.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Outlaw Ocean Ep. 9 | Fluid Borders > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=9b23ac0d-d83b-4429-aa4b-63331df95dca&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Outlaw Ocean Ep. 9 | Fluid Borders [Watch (HLS stream): The Outlaw Ocean Ep. 9 | Fluid Borders](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/X7LnI6SQ.m3u8) (11:22)  _Published 2023-06-14. The South China Seas are home to the most hotly contested waters on Earth and Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago, is virtually impossible to police. For decades, its sprawling waters have been the playground for illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing. When the country began cracking down on trespassers, arresting foreign crew and blowing up their boats, its tactics were hailed as effective, but the controversy provoked the ire of many._ by [Ian Urbina](https://time.com/author/ian-urbina/) ## Ian Urbina Jun 15, 2023 10:00 PM UTC The South China Seas are home to the most hotly contested waters on Earth and Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago, is virtually impossible to police. For decades, its sprawling waters have been the playground for illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing. When the country began cracking down on trespassers, arresting foreign crew and blowing up their boats, its tactics were hailed as effective, but the controversy provoked the ire of many. by [Ian Urbina](https://time.com/author/ian-urbina/) ## Ian Urbina Jun 15, 2023 10:00 PM UTC ## Transcript Sea borders. Are notoriously dangerous places. None more. So than those on the South China Sea, the most contested waters on Earth. An Indonesian anti-poaching Squad invited me to join them along the most crime-ridden outer edge of their National Waters. This supposedly routine. Policeman soon tested any notion I had about protecting National borders at sea two-thirds of the planet is covered by water. It's our planets. Wildest Frontier breathtaking, as much as it is vital to all life. A place of Discovery and endless reinvention a metaphor for Freedom as well as a profoundly dystopian round where the darkest of all Humanity's play out. Over 50 million people work at Sea and human rights and environmental abuse has often occur with impunity. So hot, this is never ever seen this bad. My name is Ian urbina. As a journalist has spent, the past decade reporting from this Lawless Frontier. I run an investigative journalism organization called The Outlaw ocean project that reports about crimes happening in the space. This is the outlaw ocean. With murals mangoes and millions of Twitter followers. Indonesian minister of Fisheries, Susi pudjiastuti took a renewed fight to Indonesia, sea borders disease radesky. A undercover watch illegal vessels were blown up. Hundreds of cruise taken prisoner millions and fishing Revenue restored for Indonesia. The Outlaw ocean had a new sheriff in town. Before joining, one of the Indonesian Maritime border. Patrols, I travel to the island of Pontiac to spend the day and one of the country's five detention centers that hold hundreds of crew sees from illegal fishing boats. Most of these men are undocumented deckhands. They had no say over where their ships fished There are twice as many prisoners held here than the facility can accommodate. No one has seen a lawyer or been charged. They're all in limbo. Virtually, all of the detainees are Vietnamese. Some are as young as 14. Their license has lapsed their boats rotting in a junkyard, their incomes lost these husbands Fathers and Sons have no idea when they will be free. They represent a dark unintended consequence of an otherwise commendable effort by Indonesia, to better police. Its Waters It was an important stop for what we were about to witness on the outlaw ocean. Captain Sampson is a veteran anti-poaching officer and a legend among his men, a former Outlaw turned, guardian of the game he has tracked down and seized hundreds of foreign vessels over breakfast. He tells me why Indonesia needs to protect its Waters and fish supply. Minister pudjiastuti has given these patrols, a new mandate to tackle, illegal fishing. We were at sea for six hours. When we spotted our first Mark, a Vietnamese fishing boat. 60 miles inside Indonesian Waters. We gave chase after warning shots Samson's, men board, The Vessel and arrest the captain and deckhand. Over the course of the next 5 hours Samson. Ship captured for more Vietnamese boat, bringing on board 55. Vietnamese detainees each time, Samsung left an officer aboard, the captured boats, and our Convoy began to head back to shore. We had been patrolling for days and Indonesian Waters. It had been a very successful Mission with lots of arrests and the officers were proud of their accomplishment, but then everything suddenly went haywire. A frantic call came into the bridge. From one of Samsung's officers who is helming the last of the arrested Vietnamese boats in the Convoy, the officer's name was Moss, Coon he was under attack. A large Vietnamese Coast Guard Cutter, had intercepted him and isolated him from the Convoy. He was being rammed and he feared for his life. We immediately you turned and Full Throttle headed back to my spoons location. But we were out done the Vietnamese Coast. Guard ship was twice our size. The Indonesian officer Moss gun could no longer be contacted and the Seas ship. He was escorting back to court was now sinking. Forgetting this guy. I found myself a reluctant translator between the Indonesians and the Vietnamese as they haggled over the release of their respective. Captives are captives for the 55 arrested, Vietnamese fishermen, we had caught in Indonesian Waters. The Vietnamese captive was the Indonesian fishery officer Moss. Good home. They had pulled out of the water after ramming in Sinking, the ship that he was trying to ask for it back to shore. The Vietnamese demanded that all of their men and the boats be released asserting. The men were fishing in Vietnamese waters despite the maps clearly showing these are Indonesian mod. Samson was willing to give the men in boats, back in exchange for my spoon. Guys, get the binoculars. We see the officer. Now here's what I propose you put the officer in a boat, send him here. We will put the Vietnamese men in the boat and send them back over. Suddenly, there's a commotion at the rear of the boat. All 55 detain Vietnamese. Fishermen began jumping into the ocean and swimming to the Vietnamese Coast Guard ship hoping to be rescued. It was pure chaos, some of them could not swim and had no way to climb aboard the Coast Guard ship. In desperation, they clung to the stinking hole of the fishing boat. Some of the worst swimmers return to our book. Are they on the way during hours of unsuccessful negotiations? Samson asked for Naval back up, but none was forthcoming. We were too far out. Negotiations for my spoons, release ground on until two, blips appeared on the radar screen. Vietnamese reinforcements. We were now genuinely in real trouble. Samson did not want to abandon his officer who is being held on the Vietnamese Coast Guard ship in front of us. But with reinforcements rapidly heading our way to arrest all of us. Samson reluctantly did, as he was told by Jakarta and we fled the scene to avoid our own capture. For all the solidity of lines on a map, sea borders are determined most by military might. Whoever has the biggest guns is automatically in Friendly Waters. We like to think. There are five major oceans and dozens of seeds. but there is in fact just one big interconnected circulating body of water Without Borders or self-evident laws, the fish know this and so do the fishermen even if the politicians and Marine officers like to think otherwise ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6287656/the-outlaw-ocean-ep-9-fluid-borders/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6287656/the-outlaw-ocean-ep-9-fluid-borders/"},"headline":"The Outlaw Ocean Ep. 9 | Fluid Borders","datePublished":"2023-06-15T22:00:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-19T07:24:32.614Z","description":"In this episode we accompany Ian Urbina on a routine maritime border patrol which rapidly takes a turn for the worse.","url":"https://time.com/6287656/the-outlaw-ocean-ep-9-fluid-borders/","keywords":["video"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt735d5b9b5b89df20/698a3df2cabb1db751e517fb/Outlaw_Ep9_Youtube_Thumbail.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ian Urbina","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ian-urbina/"}],"articleSection":"Climate","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt735d5b9b5b89df20/698a3df2cabb1db751e517fb/Outlaw_Ep9_Youtube_Thumbail.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Outlaw_Ep9_Youtube_Thumbail","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/climate/","name":"Climate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6287656/the-outlaw-ocean-ep-9-fluid-borders/","name":"The Outlaw Ocean Ep. 9 | Fluid Borders"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Outlaw Ocean Ep. 9 | Fluid Borders","description":"The South China Seas are home to the most hotly contested waters on Earth and Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago, is virtually impossible to police. 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