Submit
Submit

Category: Essays

The Life of Anne Bonny

Anne Bonny, born around 1698 near Cork, Ireland, was an Irish-American pirate whose brief period of marauding the Caribbean during the 18th century enshrined her in legend as one of the few women to have defied the proscription against female pirates. However, much of what we know about Anne is written in the volume A […]

The Mermaid of Phi Phi Islands

This is not my story, as it belongs to an individual who posted on Reddit under r/mermaids with a prompt asking, “Does anyone have legit mermaid stories or encounters?” This is something that’s been bothering me for years. I’m 20F, and when I was 13, my dad and my younger brother went to Thailand. We […]

Bluefin Tuna Overfishing

(Abstract) When we think about Japan, oftentimes we consider their quality and inexpensive seafood. Japan is the largest tuna-eating country in the world, making up 80% of the global sashimi-tuna market and 27% of all tuna consumption. As an island nation in the pacific east, it’s not surprising that Japan gets a lot of their […]

Xingu River Basin

The Xingu River, one of the primary tributaries of the Amazon, flows nearly 1,640 kilometers through central Brazil prior to joining the Amazon River. This river is extremely important because not only is it one of the largest clearwater rivers in the Amazon Basin, but many native communities rely on its resources as well. Over […]

Hong Kong’s Shipping Ports: An Economic Gateway

(Abstract) Hong Kong is a vibrant city off the coast of China, known for its towering skylines and unique blend of Chinese and Western culture. With various trading routes to Mainland China and Asia-Pacific, Hong Kong plays a big role in the modern shipping industry. In 2024, it was estimated that Hong Kong handled 13.7 […]

Waves of Sound, Wrecks of History: Radio FreeDom and Multimodal Mapping in Réunion

“I found something… it looks like an airplane wing.” This live, unfiltered announcement on Radio FreeDom in 2015 (also linked on the map at the northeast of Réunion Island) sent shockwaves across Réunion Island and the world. A caller, simply going about his day on the beach, made an extraordinary discovery: part of MH370, the […]

To Fish or Flee: The Punargeham Relocation Project

After consecutive floods and rising death tolls along the coasts, in 2021 the communist-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) of Kerala ruled in favor of the Punargeham (“regenerate”/”reborn”) project to relocate coastal fishing villages further inland. The project was launched to “protect” fishers from the impending risks of climate change, particularly rising sea levels, that have […]

Kappalottam: Sailing on Fasted Shoulders

Ship Procession or “Kappalottam” at Kuravilangad Church Every January, the ropes that tie her 40-foot-long body to the walls of the Kuravilangad Church in coastal Kerala are undone. Held up on the shoulders of fasting men, she moves with the throng around her outside the church, enacting the mythical memory of a storm. She has […]

The Pirate Ship

“We were rolling from one side to another.” Adan was telling me his pirate tale. One moonless night in 2011, he was on a small fishing skiff with six other men somewhere in the Indian Ocean. On this journey, instead of tuna, the skiff was on the hunt for cargo ships. After some maneuvering to […]

Counter-Mapping Shipping: Digital Joy and Digital Labor in Oceanic Social Media

 

The Oceans Lab, an interdisciplinary research and advocacy initiative, explores maritime issues across oceanic spaces. With a focus on themes of race, labor, inequality, climate change, migration, and geopolitics, the Lab seeks to unravel the complexities of our oceans, making them comprehensible through innovative approaches. One such approach is the creation of this map that aims to help bridge gaps between how scholars describe oceanic spaces and the voices of those that inhabit them.

Inspired by global maritime shipping maps like marinetraffic.com, the Oceans Lab’s map is not just about tracing the trajectories of cargo ships; it is about weaving together interdisciplinary oceanic scholarship with the voices of those who inhabit the seas. It seeks to represent the various voices and ideas that converge to define the concept(s) of the ocean(s) from what may initially appear to be blank cartographic space. In the spirit of counter-mapping, we invite creators, scholars, and seafarers to use our submit button in order to actively participate in redefining how we perceive and understand oceanic spaces.

Counter-mapping, at its core, seeks to provide alternative perspectives and representations that challenge dominant power structures and dominant narratives (Peluso 1995). This ever-evolving map thus recognizes that the ocean is not just a backdrop for the global commerce represented on standard shipping maps, but a vibrant and dynamic space shaped by human experiences.

In addition to showcasing the multifaceted nature of oceanic life, the map brings to the fore the concept of digital labor and attention economies. In the digital age, content creation and the curation of online personas have become forms of labor, often underestimated and overlooked. Those at sea who engage in social media share not only their experiences participating in the shipping economy, but also contribute to the attention economy. In addition to including these digital contributions in scholarly conversations, the map hopes to open up questions about this digital labor, underscoring the importance of recognizing it within the broader context of oceanic scholarship.




View Search Clear Search

More Info

About the Map

Do you want to add something to our Oceans Map?

Send us your name, a short essay, a short story, a photo, a video, or a link to a social media post related to the sea or maritime issues (TikToks at sea are welcome, as are research essays!). We aim to fill our map with “stories from the sea” of all kinds.