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Greenpeace activists paint "Tuna Plunder and Fuel Plunder" on the hull of Panamian-flagged MV Fong Seong 888. Fishing companies from Korea, Japan and Taiwan often fish under the flags of other nations to increase the number of vessels they can 'legally' have in the ocean.
Enlarge imageIn September 2009, Greenpeace's ship, the Esperanza, set out for the Pacific to document and expose the overfishing crisis facing the Pacific. Onboard were crew, campaigners and scientists. They discovered that the last remaining healthy fisheries of the world are being exploited and we're fast approaching the point of no return.
Destructive and illegal fishing activities run rife in the Pacific, as made evident during the Esperanza's two-month tour of the Pacific. Spotting illegal fishing on the high seas can be like finding a needle in a haystack. Yet, within three weeks of being in the international waters of the western Pacific, we:
- discovered FADs (fish aggregating devices, which fatally attract fish) despite current bans on their use
- documented illegal transhipments at sea
- confiscated longlines
- rescued by-catch such as stingrays
- escorted several illegal vessels out of the high seas
Click through the photo slideshow of the tour below
Over half the world's tuna is caught in the Pacific. Despite agreements to reduce tuna catches to combat overfishing, an estimated 2.5 million metric tonnes of tuna was caught in the Pacific in 2008. This was the highest annual catch on record. As global demand continues to grow, so too does presssure on our dwindling stocks.
If we don't stop overfishing soon, in a few years our fish stocks are likely to collapse, crippling economies in the Pacific and around the world.
But there is a solution
Greenpeace's "Defending Our Pacific" campaign calls for the protection of Pacific tuna through the establishment of marine reserves spanning the four pockets of international waters in the Pacific Ocean.The proposed areas are home to endangered leatherback turtles, minke and sperm whales, and other deep-sea marine life. The areas also provide vital feeding and breeding grounds for the region's lifeline – tuna. The creation of marine reserves that are off limits to fishing will allow these fragile species and threatened stocks of tuna to rebuild, as well as maintain tuna fisheries and stocks for years to come.
