Greenpeace activists aboard the Rainbow Warrior disrupt industrial fishing operation in South Pacific

Greenpeace activists aboard the Rainbow Warrior have disrupted an industrial longlining fishing operation in the South Pacific Ocean, seizing almost 20 kilometres of fishing gear and freeing nine sharks, including an endangered mako, near Australia and New Zealand.

The Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior is seen close to a Spanish longliner to bear witness to the industrial fishing in the South Pacific Ocean.

The Rainbow Warrior is in the South Pacific Ocean to expose longline fishing and call on governments to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty and create a network of protected areas in the High Seas. — The Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior is seen close to a Spanish longliner to bear witness to the industrial fishing in the South Pacific Ocean. The Rainbow Warrior is in the South Pacific Ocean to expose longline fishing and call on governments to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty and create a network of protected areas in the High Seas.

With an expert team on a small boat releasing more than a dozen animals, crew aboard the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior retrieved the entire longline and more than 210 baited hooks from a EU-flagged industrial fishing vessel, including an endangered longfin mako shark, eight near-threatened blue sharks and four swordfish. The crew also documented the vessel catching endangered sharks during its longlining operation.

The at-sea action follows new Greenpeace Australia Pacific analysis exposing the extent of shark catch from industrial longlining in parts of the Pacific Ocean. Latest fisheries data showed that almost 70% of EU vessels’ catch was blue shark in 2023 alone. It comes ahead of next week’s UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, where world leaders will discuss ocean protection and the Global Ocean Treaty.

On board the Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace Australia Pacific campaigner Georgia Whitaker says, “These longliners are industrial killing machines. Greenpeace Australia Pacific took peaceful and direct action to disrupt this attack on marine life. We saved important species that would otherwise have been killed or left to die on hooks.

“The scale of industrial fishing – still legal on the high seas – is astronomical. These vessels claim to be targeting swordfish or tuna, but we witnessed shark after shark being hauled up by these industrial fleets, including three endangered sharks in just half an hour. Greenpeace is calling on world leaders at the UN Ocean Conference to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 from this wanton destruction.”

Greenpeace Aotearoa is calling on the New Zealand Government to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty and help create global ocean sanctuaries, including in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand signed the agreement in 2023.

More than two-thirds of sharks worldwide are endangered, and a third of those are at risk of extinction from overfishing. Over the last three weeks, the Rainbow Warrior has been documenting longlining vessels and practices off Australia’s east coast, including from Spain and China.

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