Rotten Mango #325: 33 Men Went Squid Fishing, and Only 11 Came Home

December 2010. A squid-jigging boat called the Lurongyu 2682 leaves the port of Shidao in eastern China with 33 men aboard, bound for the rich fishing waters off Chile and Peru. The trip was meant to last far longer than a single season. Instead, by August 2011 the ship was back in China, months ahead of schedule. Police were waiting at the dock. Only 11 men walked off.

Stephanie Soo takes on this case in a roughly hour-and-a-half episode released in January 2024, and it is one of the most unnerving stories Rotten Mango has ever told. She traces how the voyage started to go wrong almost from the first day, using court records and survivor accounts to show a crew isolated on the other side of the world, a long way from help and running out of trust.

So what happened to the other 22? That's the question Soo builds toward, and the answer is darker than any horror movie. The case hasn't faded, either. In 2023, journalist Ian Urbina's Outlaw Ocean Project revisited the Lurongyu 2682 in its investigation into abuses across China's distant-water squid fleet.

Press play and you won't stop until the ship docks. Listen on Apple Podcasts tonight.