Feature story - April 22, 2008
As the sun rose over the horizon in the Pacific, the Esperanza’s helicopter, Tweety spotted a lone fishing boat. The Taiwanese longliner was in the international waters just north of the Solomon Islands. Two Greenpeace inflatables were quickly launched with activists and a Chinese interpreter onboard to meet the Nian Sheng 3. After a conversation with our translator, the Captain of the vessel allowed our activists and cameramen to board the ship and inspect the contents of the hold.
It quickly became clear the Nian Sheng 3 was contributing to the
overfishing of Pacific yellowfin and bigeye tuna and as well as
sharks. A dozen sacks filled with hundreds of frozen shark fins and
tails were packed in a large refrigerator onboard. Shark bycatch in
tuna longline fisheries is decimating shark populations worldwide.
About one million sharks are caught as bycatch in tuna fisheries in
the Western and Central Pacific alone each year. Most have their
fins and tails hacked off and dried for the Asian shark fin soup
trade, while the shark is dumped - still alive - in the sea to die.
As the Chinese middle class has grown so has the insatiable demand
for shark fin soup.
Something Fishy
According to the Captain of the Nian Sheng 3, her crew had been
fishing at sea for three months. A loophole exploited by tuna
fishers in the Pacific allows the transfers of fish at sea to large
motherships. This is used to confuse the origin and amount of fish
caught. Taiwan's huge tuna fleet operating in the Western and
Central Pacific is contributing to the overcapacity of tuna vessels
in the region. Last December, Taiwan and other Asian states blocked
conservation measures advocated by Pacific Island countries to
protect yellowfin and bigeye tuna from overfishing.
"Greenpeace escorted this Taiwanese longliner out of the
international waters because the Western and Central Pacific
Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) - which is supposed to be protecting
tuna and sharks from overfishing - is failing to do so. If the
Fisheries Commission is not going to do anything about securing the
future of these great fish, then we will," said Greenpeace
Australia Pacific campaigner Lagi Toribau on board the Esperanza.
Longlining is a fishing method used to catch tuna and other fish
that is trailed behind large fishing vessels, and can be over 180
km long with over 20,000 baited hooks strung out along it. There
are currently over 3600 registered longliners plundering the waters
of the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.
After leaving the Nian Sheng 3, Greenpeace activists displayed a
banner reading 'Marine Reserves Now' in front of the longliner and
then the Esperanza escorted the vessel out of international
waters.
Greenpeace's solutions
Greenpeace is calling on the Australian Government to support
the Pacific Island nations to make fishing in the region
sustainable by turning the Pacific's international waters into
no-take marine reserves. This will allow tuna stocks and all other
marine life to recover from overexploitation.
Greenpeace is also calling for a 50% reduction in fishing across
all Pacific tuna fisheries to ensure there is tuna left to catch in
the future.
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.
Take Action
You can help ensure the survival of the Pacific’s tuna stocks by demanding that retailers and chefs stop stocking unsustainable tuna products such as bluefin, bigeye and yellowfin, which are now threatened in all oceans. You can also sign our petition demanding that 40 percent of the world's oceans be set aside as no-take marine reserves.
Join the call for full protection of 40 percent of our world's oceans as marine reserves.