Publication - 18 June, 2000
Their unregulated nets snare not only countless tons of fish, but also many of our oceans’ endangered mammals and seabirds. While governments around the world have done little to confront these modern day pirates, the essential biodiversity of the seas and local communities are under a growing threat – this is the realityof pirate fishing.
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Executive summary: They are faceless mercenaries who, with just a click on an internet website and a few hundred dollars, recklessly plunder our seas. Their unregulated nets snare not only countless tons of fish, but also many of our oceans’ endan-gered mammals and seabirds. While governments around the world have done little to confront these modern day pirates, the essential biodiversity of the seas and local communities are under a growing threat – this is the realityof pirate fishing.There is nothing romantic about these masked crews. They are not sailing the high seas in search of treasure. They are ruthlessly exploiting already depleted fish populations, and robbing legitimate fishermen of millions of honestly earned dollars. Vessels up to 100 meter long are able to stay at sea for months on end and sail under flags of con-venience which can be bought on the worldwide web. They drag nets across the ocean bottom with mouths up to 2km in circumference and set thousands of hooks per day across the surface of the seas. Thousands of species ofsharks, dolphins, sea turtles, endangered seabirds and non-target fish, all critical to maintain a healthy marine food chain, are also caught and drowned, and then simply discarded. In fisheries worldwide, 27 million tons of fish are caught and thrown back into the sea as unwanted “bycatch” every year. Altogether this figure represents about one quarter of the global fish catch.
Num. pages: 29
ISBN: 90-73361-67-2