Editor’s Note: Asia Democracy Chronicles is running selected episodes from the 10-part documentary Dispatches from the Ocean, produced by The Outlaw Ocean Project. These selected episodes focus on Thailand, Japan, North Korea, and Indonesia.
It is estimated that over 100 dead bodies wash up on Japan’s shores each year. Almost all of them are North Korean fishermen.
In partnership with Global Fishing Watch, and with the help of revolutionary satellite tracking technology, Ian Urbina investigates what links the mysterious case of the North Korean ghost boats to a plummeting squid population in the East Japanese Sea, and exposes the largest case of illegal fishing in maritime history, perpetrated by the Chinese ‘Dark Fleet’.◉
