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World's largest tuna destroyer

Sun setting over the sea while the tide is coming in. Enlarge Image

Defending our Oceans

Seen from space the Earth is covered in a blue mantle. It is a planet on which the continents are dwarfed by the oceans surrounding them and the immensity of the marine realm.

Illegal "pirate" fishing vessels in Port Louis. Enlarge Image

Pirate fishing

Armed and masked, scouring the oceans, stealing food from hungry families – modern day pirates are a far cry from the glamour of Hollywood movies. But they are a multi billion-dollar reality for many communities that can least afford to be robbed.

A large yellow fin tuna being cut up. Yellow fin and big eye tuna may be commercially extinct in 3-5 years if fishing is not controlled, experts warn. Enlarge Image

Overfishing

Many marine ecologists think that the biggest single threat to marine ecosystems today is overfishing. Our appetite for fish is exceeding the oceans' ecological limits with devastating impacts on marine ecosystems. Scientists are warning that overfishing results in profound changes in our oceans, perhaps changing them forever. Not to mention our dinner plates, which in future may only feature fish and chips as a rare and expensive delicacy.

School of Tuna Enlarge Image

Tuna

Tuna is one of the world’s favourite fish. It provides a critical part of the diet of millions of people across the globe. It is also the core of the luxury sashimi markets. The five main commercially harvested tuna are: skipjack, yellowfin, bigeye, albacore and bluefin.

Workers at a tuna packing plant resting on boxes for export. Enlarge Image

Fair fisheries

Industrial fishing fleets have decimated and almost destroyed their own fisheries and now, rather than accept that they need to reduce their fishing capacity, fishing fleets are turning greedy eyes towards the Pacific and West Africa.

Dolphin killed by pair-trawling. Thousands of porpoises and dolphins die every year as accidental bycatch. Enlarge Image

Bycatch

Many fisheries catch fish other than the ones that they target and in many cases these are simply thrown dead or dying back into the sea. In some trawl fisheries for shrimp, the discard may be 90 percent of the catch. Other fisheries kill seabirds, turtles and dolphins, sometimes in huge numbers.

Humpback whale breaching (Megaptera novaeangliae), Au Au Channel, Lanai, Hawaii (Pacific). Enlarge Image

Marine reserves

A growing body of scientific evidence that demonstrates what we at Greenpeace have been saying for a long time: that the establishment of large-scale networks of marine reserves, urgently needed to protect marine species and their habitats, could be key to reversing global fisheries decline.

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