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Unmasking pirates and putting them under arrest
Greenpeace calls in the law to arrest illegal fishing boats
27 March 2006
For the last few weeks, we may have seemed a bit quiet. But now we can
tell you
we’ve been working undercover with a team from the human rights group
Environmental
Justice Foundation (EJF).
Working in West African waters, we have unmasked a trail of pirate fishing and stolen food leading directly from Africa into Europe and beyond. In partnership with the Environmental Justice Foundation, we have unmasked 61 pirate vessels that are stealing food from a poor country that is losing millions of dollars a year in stolen fish.
From on board the Esperanza, we have documented 61 foreign-flagged vessels in the waters of West Africa. Of these, 19 had been involved in illegal fishing activities in the past. An additional 21 could not be identified, as their names were hidden.
Two Guinean enforcement officials, with powers of arrest, have now joined the Esperanza, which will continue to carry out surveillance operations in the region.
Five unidentified vessels were spotted in waters inside the Guinean 12 mile zone – waters reserved for local fishermen. Local fishermen simply cannot compete with these pirate ships. They have been forced, often in unstable canoes, to fish further and further from shore. Collisions are not uncommon. Legitimate local fishermen have died while the pirates continue to steam further inshore.
We have also witnessed an illegal transfer of fish from two vessels to a large refrigerated vessel, or reefer. (Guinea outlawed such transhipments last year.) Transhipping is one of the major ways in which pirate fishing fleets hide their catches and launder them through Europe.
West Africa is the only region in the world where fish consumption is falling. According to an estimate from the the UK Department for International Development, cash and food starved nations like Guinea are losing US$100 million each year in stolen fish.
Internationally, pirate fishing is worth billions of US dollars a year – 20 percent of the total fish catch. It is estimated that just in sub-Saharan Africa it nets US$1billion dollars annually, while in the waters of the Southern Ocean, up to 50 percent of the valuable Patagonian Toothfish may come from illegal activities. In the Baltic Sea 40 percent of the cod caught in 2002 - 2003 was estimated to have been illegal.
Despite the fact that pirate fishing is devastating to ocean life and the livelihood of some of the world’s poorest people, not enough is being done to stop it.
Helene Bours of the EJF said, "It is complete hypocrisy for governments to talk about encouraging aid to Africa at the same time as allowing the food and income they need to be stolen."
Our Oceans Campaigner onboard, Sarah Duthie, said the solution must come from governments taking action such as closing ports to pirate fishing vessels and making sure companies are prosecuted.
Help us to ensure that governments stop just talking about pirates and work actively to make piracy history – sign up now as an Ocean Defender.
Working in West African waters, we have unmasked a trail of pirate fishing and stolen food leading directly from Africa into Europe and beyond. In partnership with the Environmental Justice Foundation, we have unmasked 61 pirate vessels that are stealing food from a poor country that is losing millions of dollars a year in stolen fish.
From on board the Esperanza, we have documented 61 foreign-flagged vessels in the waters of West Africa. Of these, 19 had been involved in illegal fishing activities in the past. An additional 21 could not be identified, as their names were hidden.
Two Guinean enforcement officials, with powers of arrest, have now joined the Esperanza, which will continue to carry out surveillance operations in the region.
Five unidentified vessels were spotted in waters inside the Guinean 12 mile zone – waters reserved for local fishermen. Local fishermen simply cannot compete with these pirate ships. They have been forced, often in unstable canoes, to fish further and further from shore. Collisions are not uncommon. Legitimate local fishermen have died while the pirates continue to steam further inshore.
We have also witnessed an illegal transfer of fish from two vessels to a large refrigerated vessel, or reefer. (Guinea outlawed such transhipments last year.) Transhipping is one of the major ways in which pirate fishing fleets hide their catches and launder them through Europe.
West Africa is the only region in the world where fish consumption is falling. According to an estimate from the the UK Department for International Development, cash and food starved nations like Guinea are losing US$100 million each year in stolen fish.
Internationally, pirate fishing is worth billions of US dollars a year – 20 percent of the total fish catch. It is estimated that just in sub-Saharan Africa it nets US$1billion dollars annually, while in the waters of the Southern Ocean, up to 50 percent of the valuable Patagonian Toothfish may come from illegal activities. In the Baltic Sea 40 percent of the cod caught in 2002 - 2003 was estimated to have been illegal.
Despite the fact that pirate fishing is devastating to ocean life and the livelihood of some of the world’s poorest people, not enough is being done to stop it.
Helene Bours of the EJF said, "It is complete hypocrisy for governments to talk about encouraging aid to Africa at the same time as allowing the food and income they need to be stolen."
Our Oceans Campaigner onboard, Sarah Duthie, said the solution must come from governments taking action such as closing ports to pirate fishing vessels and making sure companies are prosecuted.
Help us to ensure that governments stop just talking about pirates and work actively to make piracy history – sign up now as an Ocean Defender.
