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In November, Greenpeace was faced with the challenge of putting the CCAMLR meeting in Hobart on the agenda and whipping up some worldwide support for the CITES nomination of toothfish.
We realise that figuring out what CCAMLR and CITES stand for, and encouraging people to get behind a really ugly fish, is a challenge in itself.
CCAMLR is the body responsible for looking after Antarctic “marine living resources” (aka birds, fish, everything that lives in those waters). CITES is a trade convention to protect threatened or endangered species.
While toothfish aren’t yet officially endangered, pirate fishing seriously threatens them.
The CCAMLR meeting in Hobart preceded a CITES meeting in Chile, so we decided to tell the world about the plight of the toothfish from the top of Tasmania’s “Totem Pole”, an iconic formation overlooking the Southern Ocean.
The Totem Pole is a 65 metre-high natural dolerite (big, tall rock!). After a “reccy” of the site and much careful planning beforehand, the Greenpeace team arrived to take on the Totem Pole at sunrise on a Wednesday. Armed with a banner, our climbers first had to scale a sheer rock face to rig up the “tyrolean” (a rope-like contraption used to slide across to the top of the Totem from the cliff face).
We rugged up in wet weather gear for the ride in an inflatable boat out to the rock. The weather was calm in the bay, but as soon as we rounded the headland, the wind was up. We landed the climbers, toothfish expert (media spokesperson), photographer and video photographer onto the slippery rocks and they began clambering up the mountain adjacent to the Totem, while the crew waited, cold and wet, in the boat below.
And waited. And waited.
We could see the tyrolean rope whipping from side to side in the wind. The call came over the radio soon enough: “We’re aborting, it’s too windy,” John said.
The photographers clambered back down from the rocks. The waves were high and they had to use their surfing skills to jump on board the inflatable at the right time, pushing their cameras in front of them to make sure the equipment stayed safe.
Back at the car, it was hard not to feel deflated. The next day got cancelled before it even began – the forecast was for high winds. We started to worry that we wouldn’t get the job done before the CCAMLR meeting ended.
Friday dawned and we headed off again, even earlier than before. It was windy and cold at the bay. We huddled in Nick the photographer’s van and drank coffee or napped til we couldn’t stand waiting anymore.
All geared up and in the boat, we made it around the headland and realised that, hooray, there was no wind outside the bay.
Everybody got off again and up the mountain they went, scrambling like goats. The climbers swung across the Tyrolean. Everyone was in position and all we had to do was wait for the sun to hit the rock. But .. uh-oh! The banner wasn’t quite straight. Climbers Doug and Andrew went back up to adjust it.
Perfect!
Nick hitched a ride back into town with a passing fisherman; to get his photos developed ASAP. We had to have them scanned in and sent to Sydney by 3pm – an ambitious deadline. John and Peter edited the video footage in the back of the car (with Sandro the videographer). We raced into the TV stations to deliver the footage, then over to Nick’s place to choose and scan the photos.
At 4.30am the next morning Peter sent the last of the video footage via email to the Greenpeace International office in Amsterdam, where it was packaged and given to news agency Reuters. Later, we heard the footage was broadcast on TV in North Dakota, and our photos were published in Austria, UK, US, Italy, Spain (where many of the pirate fishing captains come from) and South America.
The toothfish wasn’t listed on CITES this time, mainly because Japan and Norway led a campaign against the listing of any marine species. But a fish species – the whale shark – did make it and we hope the Australian government will nominate toothfish again at the next CITES meeting in 2004.
We realise that figuring out what CCAMLR and CITES stand for, and encouraging people to get behind a really ugly fish, is a challenge in itself.
CCAMLR is the body responsible for looking after Antarctic “marine living resources” (aka birds, fish, everything that lives in those waters). CITES is a trade convention to protect threatened or endangered species.
While toothfish aren’t yet officially endangered, pirate fishing seriously threatens them.
The CCAMLR meeting in Hobart preceded a CITES meeting in Chile, so we decided to tell the world about the plight of the toothfish from the top of Tasmania’s “Totem Pole”, an iconic formation overlooking the Southern Ocean.
The Totem Pole is a 65 metre-high natural dolerite (big, tall rock!). After a “reccy” of the site and much careful planning beforehand, the Greenpeace team arrived to take on the Totem Pole at sunrise on a Wednesday. Armed with a banner, our climbers first had to scale a sheer rock face to rig up the “tyrolean” (a rope-like contraption used to slide across to the top of the Totem from the cliff face).
We rugged up in wet weather gear for the ride in an inflatable boat out to the rock. The weather was calm in the bay, but as soon as we rounded the headland, the wind was up. We landed the climbers, toothfish expert (media spokesperson), photographer and video photographer onto the slippery rocks and they began clambering up the mountain adjacent to the Totem, while the crew waited, cold and wet, in the boat below.
And waited. And waited.
We could see the tyrolean rope whipping from side to side in the wind. The call came over the radio soon enough: “We’re aborting, it’s too windy,” John said.
The photographers clambered back down from the rocks. The waves were high and they had to use their surfing skills to jump on board the inflatable at the right time, pushing their cameras in front of them to make sure the equipment stayed safe.
Back at the car, it was hard not to feel deflated. The next day got cancelled before it even began – the forecast was for high winds. We started to worry that we wouldn’t get the job done before the CCAMLR meeting ended.
Friday dawned and we headed off again, even earlier than before. It was windy and cold at the bay. We huddled in Nick the photographer’s van and drank coffee or napped til we couldn’t stand waiting anymore.
All geared up and in the boat, we made it around the headland and realised that, hooray, there was no wind outside the bay.
Everybody got off again and up the mountain they went, scrambling like goats. The climbers swung across the Tyrolean. Everyone was in position and all we had to do was wait for the sun to hit the rock. But .. uh-oh! The banner wasn’t quite straight. Climbers Doug and Andrew went back up to adjust it.
Perfect!
Nick hitched a ride back into town with a passing fisherman; to get his photos developed ASAP. We had to have them scanned in and sent to Sydney by 3pm – an ambitious deadline. John and Peter edited the video footage in the back of the car (with Sandro the videographer). We raced into the TV stations to deliver the footage, then over to Nick’s place to choose and scan the photos.
At 4.30am the next morning Peter sent the last of the video footage via email to the Greenpeace International office in Amsterdam, where it was packaged and given to news agency Reuters. Later, we heard the footage was broadcast on TV in North Dakota, and our photos were published in Austria, UK, US, Italy, Spain (where many of the pirate fishing captains come from) and South America.
The toothfish wasn’t listed on CITES this time, mainly because Japan and Norway led a campaign against the listing of any marine species. But a fish species – the whale shark – did make it and we hope the Australian government will nominate toothfish again at the next CITES meeting in 2004.
