Pirate vessel found in Suva harbour

LATEST NEWS: The plot thickens on this suspect vessel berthed in Fiji's Suva harbour. The ship came into the country under a Taiwanese flag and changed to an Indonesian flag when it berthed at Suva. But, according to the Indonesian ambassador in Fiji, it is not an Indonesian ship. The embassy is investigating and the ship is grounded until further notice. Says Greenpeace oceans campaigner, Nilesh Goundar, "Now that the Indonesian government has disclaimed the ship as one of its country's fishing vessel, it is confirmation that it is a pirate ship."

While on port watch duty, a Greenpeace activist photographed a ship in Suva harbour going by the name of Mahkoia Abadi. On closer inspection, he found it was really the Wen Teng No 688, a known pirate fishing ship blacklisted under IATTC. Four days later, he noticed crew members painting a different name on the ship.

Renaming, using false names, changing their flag state, and switching areas are all common tactics used by pirate fishing vessels to confuse authorities.

What's more, a second suspect fishing vessel, belonging to the same company, but not registered with the Fisheries Forum Agency, was docked next to the Wen Teng. Unregistered ships will sometimes fish anyway, transferring their catch to a registered ship, or a refrigerator ship, to avoid regulators.

The activist quickly notified the Greenpeace Suva office. We got the authorities involved and the Wen Teng has been detained.

Rampant piracy

Illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing is rampant in this part of the world. Our ship, the Esperanza, has spent the past weeks working with local authorities in two Pacific Island countries to hunt for pirate fishing vessels.

Inspectors from the Federated States of Micronesia and Kiribati and Greenpeace boarded vessels that were consistently failing to report through their vessel monitoring systems. Some had almost certainly been transhipping at sea, making it impossible to monitor or regulate the size of their catch.

Greenpeace campaigner, Lagi Toribau, says, "Foreign fishing fleets take advantage of the Pacific's lack of resources in order to run amok. Kiribati has just one small patrol boat to cover over three million square miles. Pirate vessels are cheating Pacific Island people of income and food.

View the slideshow of Greenpeace's Pirate Awareness Day in Suva

The real problem

Pirate fishing aggravates overfishing, which in the Pacific has put two tuna stocks, bigeye and yellowfin, in serious trouble. Unless drastic action is taken to reduce fishing effort, they could face commercial extinction within three years.

Greenpeace oceans campaign, Nilesh Goundar, coordinated the Pacific Island leg of the Defending Our Oceans expedition. He emphasises that flag states must make greater efforts to deter and prevent pirate fishing on high seas registered to their flag. According to Nilesh, "The Flag of Convenience (FOC) system is very inexpensive and often a deliberate means for fishing vessels on the high seas to evade the rules and make enormous profits. The oceans are being plundered and we must defend it to the hilt."

Read more about what the Esperanza discovered in the Pacific.