'It was sink or turn yourself in': behind a dangerous 10,000 mile ocean pursuit

Documentary Chasing the Thunder tracks a high-stakes 2015 chase of an illegal fishing ship through storms and near collision, from Antarctica to AfricaThe scale of the open-sea drama in Chasing the Thunder, a 2018 documentary now streaming on Discovery+ about the longest pursuit of an illegal fishing vessel in history, is fittingly and at times mind-numbingly colossal.For 110 days in early 2015, the Bob Barker, a ship outfitted by the nonprofit Sea Shepherd to police some of the planet's most remote waters, chased the Spanish-owned Thunder for over 10,000 nautical miles, from the Antarctic to the western coast of Africa. The two ships - one an infamously lucrative illegal fishing vessel, the other an eco-vigilante trawler largely staffed by young, idealistic volunteers - endured water temperatures that could kill by cardiac arrest, cyclonic storms with 50-ft swells, and pack ice that could congeal and trap a boat in minutes. Continue reading...