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The Massive Costs of Overfishing

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American Fisheries Act - Permanent Privatization and Corporatization of the North Pacific

In 1997, Senator Stevens (R-AK) introduced a bill, the American Fisheries Act (AFA), that would have closed U.S. fisheries to any new factory trawlers and begun the phase-out of the entire U.S. factory trawler fleet. The bill faced stiff opposition from Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA) and multinational corporations with fishing operations in the North Pacific.

Greenpeace Diver frees sunfish from Japanese driftnet in the Tasman Sea Enlarge Image

The Massive Waste of Bycatch

Bycatch-unwanted fish and other marine life that get caught up in fishing nets and discarded-is one aspect of the ecosystem-wide destruction caused by factory trawlers. Factory trawlers use their huge nets to indiscriminately catch everything in their path, effectively strip-mining the oceans of marine life.

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Principles for Ecologically Responsible Fisheries

Fishery Ecosystem Plan

Before and after view of bottom trawling. Enlarge Image

Saving the Deep Sea

Biologists estimate that somewhere between 500,000 and 5,000,000 marine species have yet to be discovered, some dating back to prehistoric times. But these very species are in serious danger from the world's most destructive fishing practice - bottom trawling - and we are heading out to stop this destruction before it is too late. This is truly the last undiscovered wilderness left on the planet.

Greenpeace activists hang a banner on the trawl doors of the bottom trawler Playa de Menduina to protest the destruction caused by deep sea trawling Enlarge Image

Activists from the Esperanza have documented the extreme destruction caused by bottom trawling.

Activists from our ship Esperanza, braving gales and stormy weather, have taken action to stop the world's most damaging fishing practice: bottom trawling. On Monday, October 25, a lone Greenpeace activist hurled himself onto the huge fishing net that was being hauled from the depths onto the deck of a Spanish bottom trawler in the North Atlantic. Activists in Greenpeace inflatables also attached a banner reading “Deep Sea Destroyer” to the stern of the ship.

Seals are being blamed for eating too much cod. Enlarge Image

No Fish? Hunt Seals!

The Newfoundland Grand Banks, off the east coast of Canada, used to be famous for its productive fishing grounds. The first European explorers described the waters as being so full of cod you just had to lower a basket into the water to bring it up full of fish. In 2003, centuries later, the Canadian government announced the permanent closure of the cod fishery due to depletion of the species. So why have cod disappeared from the Grand Banks? Never mind the highly destructive factory fishing industry – it must be the harp seals. Or so said the Canadian government, as it increased the annual seal hunt.

A menu of endangered fish Enlarge Image

Fish: It's Not What's for Dinner

On March 24, federal officials, members of Congress and fisheries industry representatives gathered in Washington, D.C. for an evening of fine dining, hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). But they received a surprise when they were presented with menus showing what was not for dinner that evening – namely Red Snapper, Yellow Tail Flounder, Atlantic Cod and other major species of fish. Dressed as waiters, six activists interrupted the gala event to deliver the message that the nation's fisheries are in crisis.

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