Greenpeace stops pirate fishing vessels in European port

"The fact that the German government allows known pirate fishing vessels to set sail is incredible," says Andrea Cederquist, marine biologist at Greenpeace Germany. "Knowing these ships are leaving port without making sure they will keep to international fishery agreements in future is unacceptable." Pirate fishing vessels are an enormous problem, particularly on the high seas and in the coastal waters of developing countries. There they steal fish – often the staple food - from some of the poorest countries in the world and destroy the livelihoods of fishermen who live there“

 Pirate fisheries are estimated to cost countries between 3.4 and 7.6 billion euros each year.  They also wipe out the unknown worlds of the deep-sea.   Many pirate vessels are engaged in a fishing technique called high seas bottom trawling which is known to cause huge destruction to vulnerable deep-sea marine life such as coldwater corals (1).

On December 19th, 2005, Greenpeace called on the German Government to chain up the Rostock pirate fishing vessels. The ships were then called the Oyra, Ostroe, Okhotino, Olchan and Ostrovets. In 2005, they were involved in the collapse of the redfish stocks of the North Atlantic. Now their owners have changed the ships' registrations and they're called Eva, Junita, Rosita, Isabella and Carmen, and are registered to a new flag state: Georgia. According to information obtained by Greenpeace, the trawlers have set their sights on either plundering the rich fishing waters off the coast of West Africa (Mauritania) or going farther a field to trawl the depths of the Pacific. Both are regions were proper controls are lacking and pirate fishing is flourishing.

“The world’s leaders keep talking about stopping pirate fisheries, yet boats like the Rostock trawlers go out and fish every day in every ocean. If governments are serious about what they say then they need to act now.  They need to stop these boats from leaving port and support a United Nations moratorium on high seas bottom trawling moratorium. This way they would not only be saving deep-sea life, but sending a clear signal to the pirates that the freedom to plunder the high seas is over,” says Sari Tolvanen Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner. (2)

Over the next few months, in partnership with the Environmental Justice Foundation, the Greenpeace ship Esperanza will expose how fishing pirates in the Atlantic are wiping out marine life and destroying the livelihoods of the communities dependent on our oceans for food. The tour is part of the year-long 'Defending Our Oceans Expedition' to highlight the threats to the oceans and demand that 40% be declared no-take marine reserves, to safeguard marine life. (3)