Illegal fishing vessel "Carmen" blockaded in Polish port by Greenpeace activists.
The trail of the "trawler girls"
Greenpeace documented the activities of these five fishing
trawlers (nicknamed the "trawler girls" by Greenpeace campaigners
due to the ships names all being women's names) since September
2005 while they illegally caught redfish in the Irminger Sea (an
area of the North Atlantic between Iceland and Greenland).
The ships over-wintered in European ports and then returned to
their old fishing grounds. This happened despite the fact that all
five vessels were blacklisted by the European Union, Iceland as
well as the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC).
In December 2005 and again in March 2006, Greenpeace activists
prevented four of these vessels from leaving Rostock harbor in
Germany and called on the German government to prevent them leaving
port. Prior to their arrival in Germany these trawlers were called
the Oyra, Ostroe, Okhotino, Olchan and Ostrovets. While they were
in Rostock harbour the owners registered the ships under a new flag
(Georgia) and changed their names to Eva, Juanita, Rosita, Isabella
and Carmen, a make-over commonly practiced by pirate fishing
vessels in order to disguise their identity and avoid inspections.
Following the Greenpeace action in Rostock harbour the German
authorities asserted that they would not re-supply the vessels but
despite breaking EU regulations, the ships managed to secure enough
fuel and supplies and were able to leave port at the end month.
Read more.
Carmen, the fifth vessel in the blacklisted fleet had already
fled to Poland under the cover of darkness before we took action in
Germany. But we found her in the port of Swinoujscie, wrapped her
in chains and hung a banner that read "Stop Pirate Fishing". The
Polish government ignored their obligation to prevent Carmen from
re-supplying despite their promises to do so. The vessel was
serviced, including a spell in dry dock and left port with a Polish
pilot on the 31st of March 2006.
Again in March 2006 the same ships showed up in Lithuania along
with several other pirate fishing vessels. Their hulls were
promptly painted again and Greenpeace demanded that Lithuania
refuse blacklisted pirate vessels.
Read more.
European Union member states like Germany, Poland and Lithuania
violated EU law by giving these pirate ships shelter, fuel, service
and assistance. The port of Klaipeda in Lithuania, where these
ships showed up, is notorious for poor reporting and registration
systems, which enables pirate fishing ships and
'flag-of-convenience' ships to unload illegally caught fish.
The last season of plunder in the Atlantic
Despite having their crimes so widely exposed, the "trawler
girls" returned to the North Atlantic last year in April and spent
another five months fishing illegally. Iceland reported the
trawlers but the ships were still able to trawl in the Irminger
Sea, where vulnerable cold-water coral (Lophelia) reefs
abound.
They were targeting fish species such as red fish, a species
which is showing signs of over-exploitation. Greenpeace visited the
region where the ships were fishing on an over-flight with the
Icelandic Coast Guard. We documented the 'trawler girls' fishing
side by side with some 50 other legal and illegal ships.
Since November 2006 the ships were tied up in Kaliningrad.
The Greenpeace ship
Arctic Sunrise informed the Russian authorities about their illegal
nature and the obligation of Russian authorities to stop them.
In the last few weeks the ships have completed their final voyage
-- to the Lepaya scrap yard in Latvia!
In addition to these ships being scrapped, nine others pirate
fishing ships are now being held by authorities in NEAFC ports.
Following this good news, NEAFC has just launched new blacklisting
and control procedures. We'll monitor progress carefully, since
NEAFC member states have failed to control fishing effectively over
the last two years.
Too many boats, too little fish
Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is a global
problem that needs global solutions. It is primarily caused by the
huge over-capacity of the world's fishing fleets, the lack of
effective laws and the inability of many countries to police their
waters.
While many states around the world are addressing the issue on a
national and regional level, they have not been able to deal with
the problem of a highly mobile pirate fishing fleet ignoring the
law all over the world. Local and regional solutions are simply not
sufficient if the international community is to deal effectively
with pirate fishing and the theft of marine life from honest
fishermen and future generations.
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