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Stopping the Russian ship Mumrinskiy from unloading a potentially illegal cod shipment.
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Our activists have stopped the Russian flagged reefer "Mumrinskiy" from
offloading their cargo in Eemshaven, the Netherlands. We also
painted STOP PIRATE FISHING on the side and blocked the vessel from
unloading cargo. We have
good reason to suspect that the vessel is carrying illegal cod
from the Barents Sea.
The Barents Sea is home to one of the world's last relatively healthy cod populations, but even this stock is now being heavily exploited. According to estimates from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) 37 percent of all cod captured in the Barents Sea in 2005 was illegal.
Our Oceans Campaigner Farah Obaidullah explains. "The fishing industry has heavily plundered the cod stock in the North Sea and now they are starting to overexploit the stocks in the Barents Sea," she says. "Illegal fishing seriously undermines efforts to conserve and manage fish stocks and it poses a severe threat to the whole Barents ecosystem."
So why do we suspect the Mumrinskiy? This vessel has a clear history of illegal operations, including transhipment of fish from blacklisted vessels, ignoring commands from Norwegian Authorities and falsifying documents to hide illegally caught fish. The Mumrinskiy has often transited through international waters circumventing the Norwegian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), thereby avoiding inspection on her way from the Barents Sea to EU ports. (Read the fact file and see a map of her latest voyages here).
A frequent tactic trawlers use in the Barents Sea to under-report their daily catches is to tranship parts of their match unreported to reefer vessels like the "Mumrinskiy". These reefers then land the stolen fish in Dutch ports where landing documents with Russian data are not verified and the fish enters unchecked on to the European market.
"It is a scandal that Russian reefers use Dutch harbours to launder their illegal fish", says Obaidullah. "The only way to stop illegal cod from ending up on our plates is to carry out thorough inspections and confirm with the relevant authorities that the catch is legal before it can be offloaded in Holland.
The Arctic Sunrise is working on the North and Baltic Sea as part of the Defending Our Oceans expedition to highlight the wonders and the environmental threats to the world's oceans and to campaign for the establishment of marine reserves.
Stronger suspicion: more information about the trawlers that Mumrinskiy carries fish from this time
3 Case Studies of the Mumrinskiy from 2005
The Barents Sea is home to one of the world's last relatively healthy cod populations, but even this stock is now being heavily exploited. According to estimates from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) 37 percent of all cod captured in the Barents Sea in 2005 was illegal.
Our Oceans Campaigner Farah Obaidullah explains. "The fishing industry has heavily plundered the cod stock in the North Sea and now they are starting to overexploit the stocks in the Barents Sea," she says. "Illegal fishing seriously undermines efforts to conserve and manage fish stocks and it poses a severe threat to the whole Barents ecosystem."
Mumrinskiy's dodgy history
So why do we suspect the Mumrinskiy? This vessel has a clear history of illegal operations, including transhipment of fish from blacklisted vessels, ignoring commands from Norwegian Authorities and falsifying documents to hide illegally caught fish. The Mumrinskiy has often transited through international waters circumventing the Norwegian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), thereby avoiding inspection on her way from the Barents Sea to EU ports. (Read the fact file and see a map of her latest voyages here).
EU ports: laundering dirty cod
A frequent tactic trawlers use in the Barents Sea to under-report their daily catches is to tranship parts of their match unreported to reefer vessels like the "Mumrinskiy". These reefers then land the stolen fish in Dutch ports where landing documents with Russian data are not verified and the fish enters unchecked on to the European market.
"It is a scandal that Russian reefers use Dutch harbours to launder their illegal fish", says Obaidullah. "The only way to stop illegal cod from ending up on our plates is to carry out thorough inspections and confirm with the relevant authorities that the catch is legal before it can be offloaded in Holland.
The Arctic Sunrise is working on the North and Baltic Sea as part of the Defending Our Oceans expedition to highlight the wonders and the environmental threats to the world's oceans and to campaign for the establishment of marine reserves.
Stronger suspicion: more information about the trawlers that Mumrinskiy carries fish from this time
3 Case Studies of the Mumrinskiy from 2005
Read the Mumrinskiy fact file
Read a backgrounder on illegal cod
