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Fishing out the Pirates of the Mediterranean updated

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.

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.

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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