 |
Maritime Security Forum > General Discussion > Maritime Security in General > Sea Shepherd Takes On Tuna Fishermen |
| |
Maritime Security Forum > General Discussion > Maritime Security in General > Sea Shepherd Takes On Tuna Fishermen |
|
| Moderated by: David |
|
||||||||||||||
| Sea Shepherd Takes On Tuna Fishermen | Rate Topic |
| Author | Post |
|---|
| Posted: 20 June 2010 01:18 |
|
1st Post |
|
mariti6 Plank Owner/Founder 
|
Sea Shepherd Takes On Tuna Fishermen (Times of Malta - timesofmalta.com) The captain of a ship involved in an anti-tuna fishing clash with Maltese and Italian fishermen insisted today that his crew had not injured anyone, and his divers had managed to free some 800 tuna which, he claimed, were likely to have been caught after the season was closed. The fishermen were airlifted to hospital last night. Captain Paul Watson of the Steve Irwin, flagship of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, in a report issued to the media, said that at about 1 p.m. yesterday (Thursday) the Steve Irwin came upon the Italian vessel Cesare Rustico towing two cages some 40 miles off the Libyan coast. One of the cages contained about 800 fish and the other was empty. Another boat, the Rosaria Tuna, was near by. "The Captain of the Cesare Rustico said when we questioned him, that the tuna were caught on the morning of the 14th by the Libyan vessel Tagreft. When we replied that the number of tuna in the cage exceeded the quota for the Tagreft the captain said the cage also included tuna from seven other Libyan seiners. All the catches were caught on the 14th , the last legal day, he said. The other seven seiners named were the Khandheel 2, Hanibal, Ozul 2 Almadina, Morina, and Khaleej Eltahadi and one other that he had no name for. "The problem for us with this explanation was that we had observed the Khandheel 2 on the 13th and 14th of June and it was not fishing and weather conditions for those two days made fishing virtually impossible. "The extremely difficult conditions coupled with the position of the cages only 40 miles off the Libyan coast, when they should have been moving 25 miles a day, suggested to us that the fish were freshly caught within the last three days at the most," Capt Watson said. "Their statement that all the catches were caught on the 14th sounded much too convenient, so we asked to examine the fish for juveniles and they refused. I then put the bow of the Steve Irwin onto the cage so we could look into the cage from the bow to examine it further. "Suddenly the Maltese vessel Rosaria Tuna rammed the Steve Irwin on the aft port side and slid alongside the port rail as a fishermen tried to violently gaff Sea Shepherd crew members with a long sharp hook on a pole. "The Steve Irwin crew retaliated with 8 litres of rotten butter forcing the fishing vessel to retreat and to stand off." At 3.30 the two fishing vessels circled their cages defensively and the Steve Irwin stood off to notify ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna) of possible violations. They did not respond. The Jean Charcot, the ICCAT inspection vessel will not venture south of 33 Degrees 40 Minutes North, the captain said. "With two fishing vessels containing angry Italian crews there were risks involved with getting into the water to assess the Bluefin catch. But if the catch is illegal Sea Shepherd divers knew they must cut the nets and free the Bluefin tuna," Capt Watson added. "Sometimes it is necessary to do what needs to be done despite the risks. The risk of losing the Bluefin tuna as a species is far more important than the risks to our own lives and freedom. "And so we decided to free the tuna. "At 1600 hours a five person dive crew entered one of two cages being towed by the Italian fishing vessel Cesare Rustico. "As the Steve Irwin held off the Cesare Rustico and the support ship Rosaria Tuna, the Sea Shepherd dive crew dove into the net to identify the size, age and quantity of the Bluefin tuna within; once it was clearly established that the cage was over stocked and that a high percentage were juveniles, Sea Shepherd divers freed the 700-800 tuna." He claimed that the cage held a large number of juveniles and that the fish were caught after the official closure of the season and exceeded the quota. Referring to reports about the injured fishermen, the captain said no one was injured by his crew's actions. "We saw one man dive into the water from the side of the cage. We saw him get up and give us the rude Italian arm signal. We had another fisherman slash at the crew with a hook on the end of a long pole and we had one of the vessels ram us in the port stern area," he said. MALTESE FEDERATION SAYS ATTACK WAS VICIOUS AND UNPROVOKED The Federation of Maltese Aquaculture Producers said it was shocked to hear about two Maltese seamen were injured in "a vicious and unprovoked attack by the Sea Shepherds". "At around 15.00 today the Steve Irwin attacked an Italian tug boat (Cesare Rustico) towing cages belonging to Fish & Fish Limited. The tug was sailing in company with the Maltese flagged Rosaria Tuna as a support vessel. The fish had been caught legally by a number of purse seiners operating according to ICCAT regulations, and subsequently purchased by the Maltese farming company. Contrary to what has been stated by the Sea Shepherds the vessel Tagreft was not present," the federation said. "The Steve Irwin approached the convoy with the intention of freeing the fish in the cages despite it being clear that the fish was caught legally. Though it was also obvious that the crew of the vessels would have resisted such a move it was an unequal struggle. The Steve Irwin was initially constructed as an offshore patrol vessel for the United Kingdom with a displacement of nearly 900grt. It is equipped with a helicopter and instruments designed to overpower fishing boats. On the other hand the tug and the support vessel are small boats each having a displacement of around 150 grt." The federation said it was not true that those on the Steve Irwin acted in self defence. "On the contrary those on board assailed the two vessels specifically to tear the cage and ruin the catch. They used rubber bullets to subdue the crew. They threw bottles, acid, ammonia and other stuff at the crew. They didn’t care that their actions were exposing people to danger. They didn’t care that the fish were caught legally. They in fact think they are above the law and can do as they like. They are more than irresponsible. They are armed, dangerous and bent on causing harm to private property." The federation said it expected the intervention of the Maltese authorities. "Nobody has the right to take the law in his hands. This is a fundamental precept of our way of life and it is certainly not going to be unlawful threats and activities by so-called environmental activists that is going to change it." PL STATEMENT In a statement, the Labour Party condemned the attack on Maltese fishermen and expressed solidarity with the victims. Article URL: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100618/local/anti-tuna-campaign-denies-injuring-fishermen-says-it-freed-800-tuna Attachment: ssca tuna.jpg (Downloaded 10 times)
____________________ mariti6 Forum Administrator Visit our other site at http://www.maritimesecurity.com |
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| Posted: 20 June 2010 01:34 |
|
2nd Post |
|
mariti6 Plank Owner/Founder
|
The Sea Shepherd version of the incident (from SeaShepherd.org): Operation Blue Rage: Day Ten of the Mediterranean Patrol Thursday, June 17th, 2010 Location: Off the Coast of Libya Report by Captain Paul Watson, Steve Irwin Sea Shepherd’s helicopter reconnaissance flight this morning found two fishing vessels. One was engaged in transferring bluefin tuna into one of the two nets being towed by the other vessel. The bluefin fishery vessels were inside waters claimed by Libya and about 42 miles off the coast of North Africa. At 1300 hours, the Steve Irwin came upon the Italian vessel Cesare Rustico towing two cages; one contained about 800 fish (the other was empty). The Captain of the Cesare Rustico said when questioned that the tuna were caught on the morning of the 14th by the Libyan vessel Tagreft. When we replied that the number of tuna in the cage exceeded the quota for the Tagreft, the Captain said the cage also included tuna from seven other Libyan seiners. All the catches were caught on the 14th, the last legal day, according to the Captain. The other seven seiners named were the Khandheel 2, Hanibal, Ozul 2, Almadina, Morina, and Khaleej Eltahadi and one other that he had no name for. The problem with this explanation was that we had observed the Khandheel 2 on the 13th and 14th of June, and it was not fishing. In addition, weather conditions for those two days made fishing virtually impossible. The extremely difficult conditions, coupled with the position of the cages only 40 miles off the Libyan coast, when they should have been moving 25 miles a day, suggested to us that the fish were freshly caught within the last three days at the most. Their statement that all the catches were caught on the 14th sounded much too convenient, so we asked to examine the fish for juveniles. We were refused. I then put the bow of the Steve Irwin onto the cage so we could look into the cage from the bow to examine it further. Suddenly, the Maltese vessel Rosaria Tuna rammed the Steve Irwin on the aft port side and slid alongside the port rail, as a fisherman tried to violently gaff Sea Shepherd crewmembers with a long, sharp-hooked pole. The Steve Irwin crew retaliated with 8 liters of rotten butter forcing the fishing vessel to retreat and to stand off. At 1530 hours, the two fishing vessels circled their cages defensively and the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin stood off to notify ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna) of possible violations. They did not respond. The Jean Charcot, the ICCAT inspection vessel will not venture south of 33 Degrees 40 Minutes North. With two fishing vessels containing angry Italian crews, there were risks involved with getting into the water to assess the bluefin catch. But if the catch was illegal, Sea Shepherd divers knew they must cut the nets and free the bluefin tuna. Sometimes it is necessary to do what needs to be done despite the risks. The risk of losing the bluefin tuna as a species is far more important than the risks to our own lives and freedom. And so we decided to free the tuna. At 1600 hours, a five-person dive crew entered one of two cages being towed by the Italian fishing vessel Cesare Rustico. As the Steve Irwin held off the Cesare Rustico and the support ship Rosaria Tuna, the Sea Shepherd crew dove into the net to identify the size, age, and quantity of the bluefin tuna within. Once it was clearly established that the cage was overstocked and that a high percentage were juveniles, Sea Shepherd divers freed the 700-800 tuna. It is our position that the bluefin tuna we freed from that cage held a large number of juveniles and that the fish were caught after the official closure of the season. It is also our position that the fish that we freed exceeded the quota. A large percentage of the tuna were juveniles and from the position of the cages and the fact that the entire Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery closed at midnight on June 14th, Sea Shepherd is convinced that this catch was caught after June 14 and therefore Sea Shepherd holds the position that this operation by these two vessels was illegal.* The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is not a protest organization. Sea Shepherd is an anti-poaching organization and these two seiners are poachers. A Sea Shepherd cameraman filmed the release of the fish from the centre of the cage and swimmers confirmed that all 700-800 tuna inside the enclosure were freed. “They shot out of that net like racehorses,” said Canadian cameraman Simon Ager. After freeing the bluefin tuna, the Steve Irwin headed north and out of the waters claimed by Libya. The Maltese media reported that Libya had dispatched warships to pursue the Steve Irwin. There are claims in the Maltese press that a bluefin tuna fisherman was injured by our actions. No one on the Steve Irwin, in the helicopter, or in the Delta saw any incident where a fisherman was injured. We saw one man dive into the water from the side of the cage. Then, we saw him get up and give us the rude Italian arm signal. Another fisherman slashed at the crew with a hook on the end of a long pole, and one of the vessels rammed us in the port stern area. Article URL: http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-100617-1.html ---------------------------- Operation Blue Rage: Day Twelve of the Mediterranean Patrol Saturday, June 19th, 2010 Location: Off the Coast of Libya At 0900 Hours the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin moved into Libyan waters to inspect the remaining cage being towed by the Italian vessel Cesare Rustico. With the Sea Shepherd helicopter overhead, our inflatable Delta boat and dive team approached the cage. The Cesare Rustico dropped the tow line and turned to defend the cage. At the same time the fishing vessels the Tagreft and the Rabbah 1060, along with the trawler Misurate 96, moved in quickly to defend their illegal catch of Bluefin. Immediately and without warning, the Steve Irwin was attacked with a barrage of flares aimed at the wheelhouse and the crew on deck. The Cesare Rustico issued a May Day distress signal saying they were under attack by the Steve Irwin even though the our crew had merely approached the cage to inspect the catch. Most worrying was the fact that the Sea Shepherd helicopter piloted by Chris Aultman was painted by the Libyan airborne radar system. At that point, in the interest of safety, I ordered the Delta inflatable and helicopter to return to the Steve Irwin. We then retreated to a safe distance away from the waters claimed by Libya. The two vessels Tagreft and the Rabbah 1060 pursued and continued to fire flares at the us. We were able to lose them quickly. The Captain of the Cesare Rustico radioed the Tagreft and Rabbah 1060 to, "do whatever you can to damage them so they will never return." The Captain of the Cesare Rustico said that the Libyan Navy was within a few miles and closing in. However there were no Libyan naval vessels within thirty miles on the radar. Yesterday the Steve Irwin requested the assistance of the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise to liberate the estimated 800 Bluefin tuna in this cage but they declined to assist. A contact within Greenpeace informed us that under no circumstances was Greenpeace to enter waters claimed by Libya. The Sea Shepherd vessel Steve Irwin is now heading north into international waters. Article URL: http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-100619-1.html
____________________ mariti6 Forum Administrator Visit our other site at http://www.maritimesecurity.com |
|||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| Current time is 11:52 | |
| Maritime Security Forum > General Discussion > Maritime Security in General > Sea Shepherd Takes On Tuna Fishermen | Top |
