International —
Just a few days into our three-month “Defending Our Mediterranean” tour, and already the Arctic Sunrise has come face-to-face with pirates. In the early hours of the morning, we confiscated almost two kilometres of illegal driftnet, containing dead, undersized bluefin tuna - and a small sea turtle.
Moving through Greek Ionian waters towards Sicily, the Arctic Sunrise passed a small drifting boat. Its crew had tried to stop their boat from being identified by covering its name and registration number; not something you’d think of doing unless you were obviously up to no good!
Fortunately for us, we never go anywhere without a photographer with a camera and a high-powered telescopic lens! Confirming that it was the Italian fishing vessel Diomede II, we checked the EU’s database of fishing vessels; it is licensed only to fish within 15 miles (approximately 24 kilometres) of the Sicilian coast, and then only with longline or anchored nets. The Diomede II was some 50 kilometres from the coast – and, with the seabed being 1500 metres down, we knew they couldn’t be using anchored nets and could only be fishing with driftnets. So, the Arctic Sunrise’s crew set to work - and managed to haul in almost two kilometres of the driftnet.
Known as “walls of death”, driftnets catch everything that crosses their path, including protected species such as whales, dolphins and turtles. They’ve been banned for years by the United Nations, the European Union, the International Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean. Of course, for bans to be effective they have to be enforced. Despite the European Commission proposing laws to blacklist fishing vessels involved in illegal practices, Italy and other MemberStates are trying to water these down. Although the authorities confiscate hundreds of kilometres of illegal driftnet every year, fleets from Italy and other Mediterranean countries are still fishing illegally.And the problem isn’t restricted to the Mediterranean. At the same time as the crew of the Arctic Sunrise are busy Defending Our Mediterranean, on the other side of the world the crew of the Esperanza are busy Defending Our Pacific. They’ve been bearing witness and taking action against purse seine and longline vessels. They’ve been doing their own bit of turtle rescuing, as well as freeing lots of other marine life from inevitable death on the longlines. And they’re also finding that international laws are being regularly flouted because little is being done to enforce them.
That’s why we’re calling for a global network of marine reserves, covering 40 percent of our seas and oceans, including the Mediterranean and the Pacific:
Marine reserves will close off high seas areas currently used as loopholes by pirate fishers;
Marine reserves are vital to ensure that fish stocks recover;
Marine reserves are essential to ensure that the fishing industry has a sustainable future;
Marine reserves will also protect our seas and oceans from the ravages of climate change and protect ocean life from habitat collapse and destruction.
We’ve followed the Diomede II back home to its harbour in Sicily, where it is being met by the coastguard – we’ve asked for the driftnets still on board to be confiscated. Quite some homecoming for the pirates (though probably not the sort they were hoping for!).
And, in the meantime, while it was too late to do anything for the tuna trapped in the driftnet we confiscated, the baby turtle managed to make it out alive! So we’re happy to say that, somewhere in the Mediterranean, there’s at least one baby turtle who’s had the chance to head back home, too.
Updated, 8 May 2008: We're happy to report that the coastguard has confiscated the Diomede II's driftnets! It was a long day for the crew of the Arctic Sunrise - and they'll keep on going; fishing out the Pirates of the Mediterranean and denouncing, exposing and stopping illegal fishing.
