Bula again, this is Ron, a Pacific activist onboard the Greenpeace flagship, The Rainbow Warrior. We are currently moored in Kaohsiung City in Taiwan.
The last few days have been really hectic but full of excitement and such an adrenaline rush! We left the island of Xiaoliuqiu last Wednesday afternoon bound for Kaohsiung and arrived later in the night.
Here we had 2 days of Open Boats. We hope to recruit many new ocean defenders here in Taiwan to ensure sustainable fisheries and healthy oceans for all of us. And we were then informed of the presence of an illegal reefer vessel, Lung Yuin. Reefers do transshipments of fish at sea which we are campaigning against. These ships allow long liners and purse seiner ships to fish for a long period of time without going back to home port and registering their catch. This kind of unregulated and unsustainable fishing is one reason why we're also campaigning for marine reserves.
On Saturday night we projected images of the Lung Yuin's illegal activities on its bow. Early this morning we escalated our action by when one of our activists locked himself onto the anchor chain of the Lung Yuin.
All these actions are to urge the Taiwanese authorities to take action against the illegal practices carried out by these vessels. I was honoured that Greenpeace and also my fellow Taiwanese campaigner gave me an opportunity to be involved in this action.
The Pacific Islands are surrounded by a vast ocean with seemingly infinite marine resources such as tuna. While the our ocean is vast our resources are not infinite. There is a real threat of tuna being fished to extinction. This would be devastating to the Pacific Islands because we depend so much on the ocean for our survival.
Nobel Peace prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said “ We, as humanity, face a conundrum. Very few amongst us wilfully advocate the extinction of species or the suffering of our fellow human being. Yet we face rampant environmental destruction that is imposing hardship upon millions of those who cannot escape it”.
The leaders of Taiwan must act now for the protection of our oceans and its fast depleting marine resources.
I am so proud of the courageous activists for locking themselves to the anchor chain of the ship for several hours - to call attention to this blacklisted fishing vessel. We of the Pacific will never forget your courage and unselfish acts!
Yours humbly,
--Ron
Ron is currently on board the Rainbow Warrior on its East Asia Ocean Defenders tour in Taiwan and is working as a deckhand. Read his last blog here.
Image © Greenpeace/ Paul Hilton