Over the weekend Greenpeace Australia and the Esperanza undertook an action against Taiwanese Longline fishermen, freeing sharks, tuna, marlin and an endangered Olive Ridley turtle from the hooks of a vessel fishing in the international waters of the Pacific.
Greenpeace activists free an endangered Olive Ridley turtle from a hook of the controversial Taiwanese longliner, Ho Tsai Fa 18, in the Pacific Ocean, 03 May 2008. Greenpeace wants this area of the high seas to become part of the first marine reserves in international waters. Greenpeace/Paul Hilton
The activists encountered a commercial longliner, the Ho Tsai Fa
18, while it was hauling tens of kilometres of fishing line.
Activists also held banners calling for "Marine Reserves Now!"
and stating "Taiwan Pacific Tuna Destroyer" in front of the vessel,
requested that the Captain release all marine life hooked on the
lines and painted "PIRATE?" on the hull of the ship to highlight
the fact that the vessels had a previous record of controversial
landing of shark fins.
The Captain refused to free the fish and marine life, so
Greenpeace set free all fish, sharks and a turtle from the line for
him. The Greenpeace ship Esperanza also started to haul in the
other end of the line. The line was kept on board and will be
returned to the company headquarters, the Tsay Jyh-Gwo in
Taiwan.
The Esperanza is in the Pacific to defend the pockets of
international waters between Pacific Island countries as marine
reserves from rapacious fishing fleets intent on fishing out the
world's last tuna stocks - the world's favourite fish.
According to scientists, overfishing of both bigeye and
yellowfin tuna is putting recently- healthy tuna stocks in
jeopardy. Longlining is also killing thousands of turtles and at
least a million sharks each year in the Central and Western Pacific
alone - and 50 million sharks globally each year.
"We painted 'PIRATE?' on the side of the vessel because even
registered tuna vessels like this one blur the line between legal
and illegal fishing. Authorities can not be sure to what degree
this vessel has engaged in pirate fishing activities", said
Greenpeace Australia Pacific campaigner Lagi Toribau on board the
Esperanza.
"Greenpeace confiscated the fishing gear and freed fish, sharks
and the turtle because the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries
Commission - which is supposed to be protecting tuna and sharks
from overfishing and protect endangered species - is failing to do
so. If the Fisheries Commission is not going to do their job and
secure the future of this important marine life, then we will,"
said Toribau.
Greenpeace advocates the creation of a network of marine
reserves, protecting 40 per cent of the world's oceans, as the long
term solution to overfishing and the recovery of our overexploited
oceans.
Find a video of the action here.
Take action
Join the call for full protection of 40 percent of our world's oceans as marine reserves.
Donate
To keep our ships at sea we need your financial support -- we don't accept donations from governments or corporations, relying entirely on people like you to keep us afloat.