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'Sea Prison': Covid-19 has left hundreds of thousands of seafarers stranded

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Re: 'Sea Prison': Covid-19 has left hundreds of thousands of seafarers stranded

#11

Post by msandford »

ForHackernews wrote: post #10

I don't see how they can justify keeping these people trapped on ships while plenty of business and leisure travellers jet back and forth around the world. I'd understand if we were actually enforcing a real quarantine with closed borders, but we're not. What makes these maritime workers such a greater risk? Is it just that they're not wealthy citizens of western nations?

I think the huge risk is that it takes days or weeks to travel between ports thus giving the virus time to incubate and show itself unlike flyers. We can't have people who mostly aren't a threat causing problems!

Seriously these people present less of a threat than jet travel but they are decidedly blue collar. Maybe that's the distinction?

Re: 'Sea Prison': Covid-19 has left hundreds of thousands of seafarers stranded

#13

Post by jacquesm »

ryan_j_naughton wrote: post #8
notafraudster wrote: post #2

This is an aside to the overall story, but > At any given time, there are more than 1.4 million seafarers plying the world's waterways, according to the International Chamber of Shipping. I mean, I guess this is obvious because SOMEONE has to ship all the stuff everywhere, but that's a truly crazy number of people to me. I guess it goes to show that the oceans are almost unfathomably huge that they can still be compl…

1.4 million is an exceptionally small number of people compared to the size of the oceans. You could fit all 7+ billion humans in New Zealand if we all lived as densely as Manhattan. [1] So 1.4 million people on the oceans is still virtually empty overall. Think about it this way. There are 3.2 million Mongolians and Mongolia is quite large -- thus, Mongolia is extremely empty. There are less than half as many seafar…

I'm just trying to imagine a city the size of New Zealand, Australia devoted to agriculture and the rest of the planet devoted to nature. That would be quite a statement with respect to stewardship of the planet.

Re: 'Sea Prison': Covid-19 has left hundreds of thousands of seafarers stranded

#14

Post by lambda_obrien »

msandford wrote: post #11
ForHackernews wrote: post #10

I don't see how they can justify keeping these people trapped on ships while plenty of business and leisure travellers jet back and forth around the world. I'd understand if we were actually enforcing a real quarantine with closed borders, but we're not. What makes these maritime workers such a greater risk? Is it just that they're not wealthy citizens of western nations?

I think the huge risk is that it takes days or weeks to travel between ports thus giving the virus time to incubate and show itself unlike flyers. We can't have people who mostly aren't a threat causing problems! Seriously these people present less of a threat than jet travel but they are decidedly blue collar. Maybe that's the distinction?

It's even easier than that: quarantine any ship that has made port in the last 2 weeks and the crew was allowed to disembark and let any ship with no sign of disease where the crew has been onboard for 2 weeks to disembark. Then, the crews can disembark at least every 2 weeks, and it's pretty simple to verify whether a ship has allowed it's crew to disembark; check their port logs.

Re: 'Sea Prison': Covid-19 has left hundreds of thousands of seafarers stranded

#15

Post by Aeolun »

jacquesm wrote: post #13
ryan_j_naughton wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1.4 million is an exceptionally small number of people compared to the size of the oceans. You could fit all 7+ billion humans in New Zealand if we all lived as densely as Manhattan. [1] So 1.4 million people on the oceans is still virtually empty overall. Think about it this way. There are 3.2 million Mongolians and Mongolia is quite large -- thus, Mongolia is extremely empty. There are less than half as many seafar…

I'm just trying to imagine a city the size of New Zealand, Australia devoted to agriculture and the rest of the planet devoted to nature. That would be quite a statement with respect to stewardship of the planet.

Can’t we choose places that are a little closer to the rest of the planet?

Re: 'Sea Prison': Covid-19 has left hundreds of thousands of seafarers stranded

#16

Post by Cyph0n »

jacquesm wrote: post #13
ryan_j_naughton wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1.4 million is an exceptionally small number of people compared to the size of the oceans. You could fit all 7+ billion humans in New Zealand if we all lived as densely as Manhattan. [1] So 1.4 million people on the oceans is still virtually empty overall. Think about it this way. There are 3.2 million Mongolians and Mongolia is quite large -- thus, Mongolia is extremely empty. There are less than half as many seafar…

I'm just trying to imagine a city the size of New Zealand, Australia devoted to agriculture and the rest of the planet devoted to nature. That would be quite a statement with respect to stewardship of the planet.

New Zealand is now a city in Australia?

Re: 'Sea Prison': Covid-19 has left hundreds of thousands of seafarers stranded

#17

Post by sharkweek »

notafraudster wrote: post #2

This is an aside to the overall story, but > At any given time, there are more than 1.4 million seafarers plying the world's waterways, according to the International Chamber of Shipping. I mean, I guess this is obvious because SOMEONE has to ship all the stuff everywhere, but that's a truly crazy number of people to me. I guess it goes to show that the oceans are almost unfathomably huge that they can still be compl…

There's that famous story of that Marine who fell off a boat and survived at sea for 36 hours.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1995-11-30-951130...

I cannot for a second imagine the absolute horror of feeling THAT alone with god knows what beneath you. But imagine the good fortune required for a random fishing boat to pass by and find you.

Or this guy who fell off a fishing boat in the middle of the night and survived, two sharks at one point circling him:

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/magazine/a-speck-in-the-s...

Re: 'Sea Prison': Covid-19 has left hundreds of thousands of seafarers stranded

#18

Post by jacquesm »

Aeolun wrote: post #15
jacquesm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just trying to imagine a city the size of New Zealand, Australia devoted to agriculture and the rest of the planet devoted to nature. That would be quite a statement with respect to stewardship of the planet.

Can’t we choose places that are a little closer to the rest of the planet?

No, that's the beauty of it :)

Re: 'Sea Prison': Covid-19 has left hundreds of thousands of seafarers stranded

#19

Post by jacquesm »

Cyph0n wrote: post #16
jacquesm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just trying to imagine a city the size of New Zealand, Australia devoted to agriculture and the rest of the planet devoted to nature. That would be quite a statement with respect to stewardship of the planet.

New Zealand is now a city in Australia?

How on earth did you get that from what I wrote?

Re: 'Sea Prison': Covid-19 has left hundreds of thousands of seafarers stranded

#20

Post by sjburt »

Cyph0n wrote: post #16
jacquesm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just trying to imagine a city the size of New Zealand, Australia devoted to agriculture and the rest of the planet devoted to nature. That would be quite a statement with respect to stewardship of the planet.

New Zealand is now a city in Australia?

I think "Australia devoted to agriculture" is meant to be a separate clause.
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