Illegal Fishing

CNBC takes viewers inside a fascinating and disturbing crime story, set in one of the most lawless places on earth: our oceans, where perpetrators traffic in an illegal product, and front-line workers are modern day slaves. It's part of a multi-billion dollar outlaw industry funded by the global appetite for salmon, tuna, and other seafood, though few are aware of the human and environmental wreckage left by illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. It's estimated that 90 percent of American seafood is imported, and roughly a quarter of the fish caught at sea is captured illegally – with no regard for the law, national sovereignty, or the future of the species themselves.

In a new six-part series, Simon Reeve travels around the edge of the Indian Ocean in an epic and exotic journey that takes him from the paradise islands of the Maldives to the front line of the war against piracy and terror on the streets of Mogadishu.