10,000 boxes of stolen fish making for Las Palmas

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Fishing boats "Lian Run 24" and "Lian Run 29" illegally transfer boxes of frozen fish onto the "Binar 4" Cargo ship.

Working with the Environmental Justice Foundation, we have beenpatrolling and documenting the activities of fishing boats in thewaters surrounding Guinea Conakry. What we've found is certainlyconfusing, and that's just the way the pirates want it to be.

"Inthe past few weeks we have begun to unravel the web of deceit aroundpirate fishing," said campaigner Sarah Duthie, from on board theEsperanza. "The way the legal and illegal ships work together isdesigned to deceive, but in the end it is a simple case of stealingfood from others."

We found the Binar 4 being loaded with fish boxes from two Chinese fishing vessels - Lian Run 24 and Lian Run 27. Two more, the Lian Run 28 and  Lian Run 29 were standing by, waiting to unload their catch.

Confused? That's exactly what the pirateswant!

Allfour trawlers have been fishing in Guinea - so transferring theircatch (transshipping) in international waters is illegal. The only placewheretransshipping of Guinean-caught fish is legal is in the port ofConakry. Allfour of these Lian Run boats are licensed to fish in thewaters of Guinea andwe've documented three of the four doing just that.

The appearance of our helicopter provoked a dramaticreaction - it was like a cat amongst pigeons. The crews dashed aroundthe decks closing hatches, disengaging the crane hook about to transfera load of fish awaiting transfer, and releasing the lines securing the ships to oneanother. With in half an hour, Binar 4 was heading north, while the trawlers headed back into Guinean waters.

Talk about acting suspiciously!

Thisisn't an isolated case - during the Esperanza's patrol off the coast ofWest Africa, we documented 104 foreign flagged vessels, from Korea,China, Italy, Liberia and Belize. We gathered evidence suggesting thataround 50 percent of the ships were involved in, or least linked toillegal fishing activities. This includes fishing without a license,operating with no name or hiding their identity, trawling inside the12-mile zone restricted to local fishermen, or transshipping anywhereother than the Guinean capital Conakry.

We made radio contact as the Binar 4steamed north. They told us they were heading to Las Palmas and hadbeen in international waters to tranship because they were "worriedabout the army in Guinea Conakry". They had 10,000 boxes of fish on board - and weren't full!Apparently their dramatic departure was due to having "just got a callfrom Las Palmas" saying that that they needed to go there... What acoincidence!