Greenpeace activists from the MY Rainbow Warrior form a symbolic 'tuna graveyard' with mock crosses and desplay a banner saying 'SOS Mediterranean' inside a tuna ranch in Cartagena, Southeast Spain.The environmental organisation has called for the immediate closure of the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery until it can be properly managed and the adoption of urgent measures, including the establishment of a network of marine reserves.
"Tuna ranches like this one are the cowboys of an industry that
is directly responsible for wiping out the bluefin tuna from the
Mediterranean Sea," said Greenpeace Spain's Sebastián Losada aboard
Greenpeace's flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, currently in Cartagena.
(2) "A few greedy commercial interests, subsidised by the EU, are
employing pirate fishing fleets and fattening tuna to fatten their
own wallets. They are depriving hundreds of fishermen from trying
to make a legitimate living from the bluefin tuna."
After facing the blockade of the port of Marseille by 25
industrial tuna fishing vessels last week, the Rainbow Warrior was
also denied entry into the port of Cartagena this week. Greenpeace
points to an apparent collusion between authorities and the tuna
fishing industry. "To what extent will industrial tuna fishing and
ranching businesses go to stifle public debate and censor
environmental concerns based on scientific facts?," asked
Greenpeace Spain's Sebastián Losada on board the Rainbow
Warrior.
Cartegena is the last stopover on the Rainbow Warrior's 3-month
tour of the Mediterranean Sea by Greenpeace. The tour has also
confirmed the organisation's worst fears: that the most important
fisheries on the high seas in the region are endangered by
widespread illegal activities and the lack of enforcement of
existing regulations.
Bluefin tuna is being plundered in the Mediterranean, and those
ironically responsible are members of the Commission for the
Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), the organisation supposedly
tasked with managing the fishery (3). Driftnets, so-called "walls
of death" -one of the most destructive fishing practices- are still
being illegally used despite their prohibition (4). Rampant
overdevelopment of the Mediterranean coastline in countries like
Spain is also destroying coastal ecosystems (5).
"The Mediterranean is in desperate need of a sea change -
literally. The large industrial fishing fleets are out of control,
the tuna ranches are out of control, the illegal driftnetters are
out of control, even the jellyfish are out of control, partly due
to its main predators like tuna and sea turtles being wiped out,"
said Karli Thomas, of Greenpeace International. "A network of
marine reserves would guarantee the protection of the Mediterranean
species and their habitat and definitely help to reverse the
fishery's decline."
The Greenpeace fleet of ships are all involved in the current
activities, which are part of the organization's 15-month global
Defending Our Oceans expedition. The fleet includes - the MY
Esperanza tackling oceans pollution on the Philippines, the MY
Rainbow Warrior confronting tuna fleets destroying the last of the
great fish in the Mediterranean and the MY Arctic Sunrise, exposing
the hidden face of illegal fishing of the North and Baltic Seas.
The Defending Our Oceans expedition aims to highlight the wonders
of and the environmental threats to the world's oceans and its
campaigning for the establishment of marine reserves covering 40 %
of the world's oceans.
Greenpeace is an independent campaigning organisation that uses
non-violent creative confrontation to expose global environmental
problems to drive solutions that are essential to a green and
peaceful future.
Sign up as Ocean Defender at oceans.greenpeace.org
Other contacts: On board the Rainbow Warrior:Sebastián Losada, Oceans Campaigner, Greenpeace Spain, + +34 626 998 254/ +871 130 2412Amsterdam:Karli Thomas, Oceans Campaigner, Greenpeace International, +31 646 055 298Barcelona:Michael Kessler, Greenpeace International Communications, +34 660 637 053.
VVPR info: Greenpeace International Picture Desk:Franca Michienzi, +31 20 7182054/ +31 6 53819255 (m)Greenpeace International Video Desk:Martin Atkin 31 20 718 2000/ +31 627 000057 (m)
Notes: 1. See "Marine Reserves for the Mediterranean" report at http://oceans.greenpeace.org/en/documents-reports/marine-reserves-medSee "Where have all the Tuna Gone?" report at http:// oceans.greenpeace.org/en/documents-reports/tuna-gone2. The bluefin tuna industry:- has catches that exceed by at least more than 12,000 tonnes (37%) the legal quota;- has received EU subsidies as high as $34 million over the last decade;- has a capacity of tuna farming of at least 51,012 tonnes in the Mediterranean, exceeding by almost 60% the Total Allowable Catches adopted by the ICCAT: an indisputable incentive for illegal catches in the region.3. The next annual meeting of ICCAT takes lace in Croatia the 17th-26th of NovemberGreenpeace is calling on ICCAT to: - protect the breeding and feeding grounds of bluefin tuna; a recovery program that includes a substantial reduction in the bluefin tuna quota, and marine reserves to protect the breeding grounds of the species;- a minimum landing size that matches the sexual maturity of the species;- an extension of the seasonal closure of the fishery to guarantee a strong, immediate and enforceable decrease in the fishing effort;- independent observers on tuna fishing vessels and in tuna farms to record and report the catch to ensure that under-sized fish are not caught and the quota is not exceeded, and provide the information needed to manage the fishery in a sustainable manner.4. Driftnets are banned by both the European Union and United Nations5. See Destruction at all co[a]sts report at http://oceans.greenpeace.org/en/documents-reports/destruction-at-all-coasts
Exp. contact date: 2006-09-30 00:00:00