Greenpeace UK

We need fewer boats and more fish to save our oceans

jamie — Fri, 25 May 2012 16:34:02 +0000

Numbers of bluefin tuna are rapidly dwindling

Image caption: Numbers of bluefin tuna are rapidly dwindling

I’m here in Bangkok at a gathering of hundreds of tuna business officials, policy-makers and even a few environmental advocates like myself. It’s been a long week of discussion about the future of the industry, including a lot about what we all call sustainability fish for the future.

Some of the key take away points of this conference are that:

every part of the tuna industry has a role to play in ensuring that there will be a viable tuna industry in the years to come;
tuna stocks are in decline. The tuna catches have been shrinking for several years even though there are more boats with ever more efficient fishing gear;
prices are very high. With the declining availability of tuna and increasing demand, the prices are going higher and higher, a key challenge for consumers and processors alike.

So what should the future of the tuna industry look like? Simply: fewer boats, more fish. This was our message to the conference – we need fewer industrial-sized fishing boats chasing dwindling tuna populations. If we want fish for the future, we need to change the way we manage our oceans today.

The tuna industry has to come up with a roadmap that will reduce fishing capacity. There are just too many boats and not enough fish. Large mechanised super boats are scooping up millions of tons of tuna every year.

The maximum amount of tuna that the oceans can provide without compromising its ability to replenish itself is being reached in tuna populations all over the world. The most destructive fishing methods are catching too many juvenile tuna, before they’ve had a chance to reproduce and reverse the impacts of overfishing.

My Greenpeace colleagues around the world are working to advance solutions to the oceans crisis. Too often, initiatives such as the creation of sustainable fishing industries are shouldered by the coastal states whose people depend on the oceans for food and jobs, such as the Pacific Island nations and the Maldives. The collapse of tuna populations would hit these states the hardest.

I have been having discussions with some of the conference attendees over the past few days. Some seem indifferent to our presence, but I have been pleasantly surprised that some have said privately that they are glad that Greenpeace is here. We have a lot in common with these industry officials: we all want ample fish and living oceans in the future. We sometimes disagree about how to make that vision a reality.

We are glad that we came too. Time will tell if the industry will take our message - fewer boats, more fish - seriously. Around the world, we are starting to see the beginning of a shift in the industry. Tuna brands, retailers and consumers alike are increasingly sourcing responsibly caught tuna and the market for sustainable tuna products is growing.

We will continue to campaign for an end to overfishing and end the destruction that is keeping the industry fishing itself out of existence. The industry can expect us to continue to monitor them on land and at sea, taking action to ensure that there will be fish for our common future.

Mark Dia is the Greenpeace Southeast Asia oceans campaign manager based in Manila, Philippines.

The fishing laws that need fixing

hayley.baker — Fri, 25 May 2012 15:18:28 +0000

The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is the set of rules that governs the European fishing industry. It was introduced by the European Union in the 1970s to ensure a profitable and sustainable fishing industry. It has utterly failed. The CFP has failed our fish and our fishermen, and desperately needs fixing.

The CFP is reformed only once every decade and 2012 is going to be a crucial year for the future of our fish. This year that we have the opportunity to fix it. This will probably be our last big chance to stop the collapse of both European fish populations and the EU fishing sector. It’s that important.

Why does the CFP needs fixing?

Europe’s fishing grounds are the largest in the world and were once amongst the most productive. But after 40 years of unsustainable fishing under the CFP, European fish stocks have been seriously depleted. Today, over 70% of fish stocks are overfished.

The CFP favours the most powerful parts of the fishing industry, with the highest environmental impact. Many boats using unsustainable, often destructive, methods have been awarded fishing rights (quota) and have received billions in taxpayer subsidies. This has resulted in companies building bigger boats, capable of catching even more fish. This fleet is so powerful that it can catch 2 to 3 times more fish than the ocean can handle.

What’s the solution?

Sustainable fishing. Over three quarters of the boats in the UK fleet are under ten metres and the majority of these use sustainable methods of catching fish. The small-scale fleet also contributes 65% of full time employment at sea, and generates many other jobs on shore. They are also part of the cultural fabric of coastal communities. However, in the UK, our government has provided the small scale fleet with only four percent of the fishing quota.

The new CFP must put an end to this environmentally damaging and unjust system. It must support sustainable, low-impact fisheries, including those in the small-scale fleet. If we are to salvage a future for our fish and our fishermen, the CFP must only award fishing rights to those who fish in the right way.

What do Greenpeace and sustainable fishermen want from the new CFP?

The new CFP should:

Give fishing rights to those who can clearly demonstrate environmental and social benefits, rewarding those who support local communities and look after their fisheries.

Stop using public money to bankroll destructive fishing practices both in Europe and around the world, and ensure that strict European rules apply equally to all European vessels wherever they fish.

Put the health of our seas and oceans, and the fish stocks they support, at the very heart of the CFP. The CFP must bring an end to needless discarding, match fishing effort to fish stocks and create a better tomorrow for those that fish sustainably.

What can I do?

Join us. Be a fisherman's friend and send a personalised sea shanty petition to Richard Benyon, our Fisheries Minister, demanding reform.

Fish tales from the high seas of Senegal

hayley.baker — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:23:42 +0000

Val Kharchenko (Greenpeace) Ze Fortes (footballer) and Gabrielle Manrique (documentary maker)

Image caption: Val Kharchenko (Greenpeace) Ze Fortes (footballer) and Gabrielle Manrique (documentary maker)

Our guest blogger, Gabriel Manrique, is an independent documentary filmmaker who focuses on social and environmental issues and the co-director of ‘Sandgrains’. He joined the crew of the Arctic Sunrise last month.

Gladys, our Greenpeace liaison in Senegal, had skillfully navigated us through Dakar customs, and we were on the tarmac to board a helicopter which would take us to the Arctic Sunrise. I had flown by chopper only once before and was keenly looking forward to filming from one, but had no idea how much fun it would be.

We had just spent two intense months shooting the documentary Sandgrains in the Cape Verdean archipelago, 350 miles west of the ship’s location. Our interest in the adverse effects of EU fishing in the region coincided with a Greenpeace campaign, so we joined the ship’s crew for eight unforgettable days. The film we’re making follows former footballer Zé Fortes who returns to his little fishing village to figure out where the beach has disappeared, and why this could possibly have anything to do with EU fisheries. So now me, Zé, and co-director Jordie Montevecchi were on our way to the Arctic Sunrise after a dramatic flight over the slums of Dakar and the awaiting ocean.

The converted Greenpeace icebreaker was on a mission to intercept, expose, and document EU fishing vessels who are devastating the West African seas. There was no lack of transgressions to document; a Russian trawler had already been found hiding its name with tarpaulin.

My co-worker Jordie will never forget the first four days, for sure, as he spent them green-faced in his bunk, cursing the waves. Zé on the other hand had some Cape Verdean sea farers’ resilience to the constant rolling.

While waves rammed the ship, and Jordie suffered, I got to know the friendly crew, and I was overjoyed by chef Willy’s food. As a vegetarian in Cape Verde, I had eaten over 140 eggs, roughly three a day for two months, and was now fed amazing buffets on a regular basis. I actually hugged Willy before disembarking.

Although our experiences on the ship differed, the one thing that struck us all speechless was seeing the cluster of 140 meter supertrawlers, each sucking up 250 tons of fish per day through strange tubes, in front of our very eyes. We pursued the unimaginably large ships for days outside of the Mauritanian coast, and daring actions were done by the crew as we got close enough.

I was filming one such action from the helicopter when events could have turned to the worse. I’d heard over the radio that someone had sustained a back injury, and after landing I saw Jordie being carried off the rib on a stretcher; a wave had slammed into the inflatable when he was filming. After the initial wave of panic, caused by thoughts of Jordie in a wheelchair, I was struck by the horror of having to record both audio and video while interviewing at the same time, on a windswept and unstable boat. Thankfully for Jordie and production, he came out of it fine, with no injuries, and was on his feet recording just a few hours later.

Our eight days on the Arctic Sunrise were simply too few and too brief, particularly if you don’t get seasick. At night, when we were adrift and the floodlights were on, dolphins would play at the ship’s bow, covered in glowing plankton and chasing little squids who were attracted by the glare. When weather kept us indoors, we’d watch films with the crew in the cozy mess, but most days were intense and filled with action. It was truly an unforgettable experience and an invaluable addition to the Sandgrains documentary.

The ocean is not a factory

Alicia C — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 08:58:59 +0000

It seems the captain of Britain’s largest fishing boat isn’t partial to a spot of tea, despite a kind invitation from John Vidal, Environment Editor of the Guardian, as he radioed the vessel from our ship the Arctic Sunrise, off the coast of Mauritania. (See for yourself in John’s video, above.)

But perhaps it was the topic of conversation that was less than palatable. This vessel is just one of many destructive European factory trawlers that our ship has encountered off West Africa in the last six weeks. It’s a classic example of how Europe’s most powerful fishing interests continue to abuse our oceans, at the expense of the local communities that rely on them.

While the owner of the Cornelis Vrolijk claims its company doesn’t receive taxpayer subsidies for its operations and that it pays licence fees to Mauritania, we know the reality is rather different. The fleet of freezer trawlers that this vessel belongs to receives, for example, millions of Euros in fuel tax exemptions every year. On top of that, taxpayers pay 90 per cent of the fees for these vessels to access West African waters.

It’s a moral outrage, and finally it seems that the EU is beginning to recognise this. During Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform negotiations, our own Fisheries Minister, Richard Benyon, has personally gone into bat for fisherman like Issa, Celestino, and Karim, whom he met with last year – and who he promised to help. And the ministers of the Fisheries Council have recently adopted conclusions on the “external dimension” – ie how the EU’s distant water fleet operates – that are a definite move in the right direction.

For the first time, the Council formally acknowledges that the EU must apply the same rules for fishing in external waters as it does in domestic waters, while respecting human rights. However, it’s apparent from the final conclusions that the vested interests of certain countries remain at play, and Benyon will have to keep fighting for a strong reform of the CFP to ensure that the principles behind the conclusions are put into effect. And decisions on subsidies policy will be a crucial part of that.

At the end of the day, we need a reformed CFP that gives the right to fish to those that fish in the right way. This applies to fishing that takes place by EU vessels at home, and anywhere in the world. The short-sighted and greedy agenda of powerful industrial interests must not continue to influence the rules.

A UK fisherman once told me that he couldn’t even begin to understand why super-trawlers are allowed to operate – calling them “cargo ships with nets”. And another summed it up perfectly: “It’s not a factory out there”. Too right it’s not. And so, this year, the EU needs to stop treating it like one.

Fixing fairness in fisheries starts at home

Willie — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 09:23:16 +0000

Artisanal fishing boat 40 miles off the coast of Mauritania

Approximately 1.5 MILLION small-scale fishermen live and work along the coast of West Africa. They live a life directly dependent on the seas on their doorstep. And it's not just them - their families and communities depend on it too, of course. Yet here in the seas off West Africa it's clear to see their interests are being ignored in favour of allowing massive, industrialised, factory fishing vessels to gobble up all the fish. Of course some of this is illicit, but much of it is legitimised plunder, such as the huge PFA vessels down here with EU subsidies and paid-for Fisheries Partnership Agreements.

That means some people in power have decided this is okay, the voice of big businesses from Europe and Asia has trumped the local fishermen in the corridors of power - legitimising the theft of African food from African people.

Clearly, that's not right: but let's not kid ourselves that it's a problem unique to Africa.

Europe's fishing laws are flawed, and need to be radically overhauled, that's a given. But there is also a huge amount of injustice over who has the access, power, and voice when it comes to fishing right here in Europe. And that's not a problem our politicians need to get Brussels to sort out - it's something they can, and should, do themselves.

For example, whilst EU subsidies gleefully lubricate the activities of Spanish-flagged vessels in far-away fisheries, such as those engaged in deep-sea trawling, the local Spanish artisanal fleet are floundering. Despite making up a far larger proportion of the industry, and being generally much lower impact in the way they fish, fisheries policy is ignoring them. And they, rightly, are getting a bit fed up about it.

Before Spain or any other country decides to export the overcapacity in its fleet, surely it should deal with its own backyard first? It seems absurd that it is not political suicide to ignore the local, inshore fishing fleet - but there we are.

And the situation in the UK is similarly grim. Despite making up the vast majority of the 'fishermen', the smaller boats in the inshore sector get a pifflingly-small amount of access to quota. So whilst discarding is happening on a large scale with larger trawlers, and whilst the EU, Faroes & Iceland square up to haggle over huge quotas of mackerel in the North Atlantic, local fishermen are losing livelihoods because they simply don't have enough access to quota to be viable. The situation is so ridiculous that some are effectively going to the wall over a few boxes of fish.

Their problem perhaps is that in the past they have not been well-enough organised, or had people in the right places shouting for them. But in traditional fishing communities around our coasts, the inshore fishing fleet is a vital and integral part of the community. Sure, they may not be perfect, but at least from an environmental perspective they have a bloody good reason to look after their local patch, as they don't have the wherewithal to go anywhere else. And yes, we should prioritise access to quotas to those who are fishing in the lowest-impact ways.

That there is a common thread here was best evidenced to me when we took some African fishermen to Cornwall last year - despite the cultural distance, they had much more in common with the Cornish inshore fishermen than you'd think.

It's a no-brainer to me. If it is a straight choice, then we should be supporting local fishing industries with less-damaging methods, more reason to look after their local area, and who are providing employment and genuine benefits to local communities. And that's true in Africa, Spain and the UK. That's why Greenpeace is standing shoulder to shoulder with those fishermen, to help their voice be heard where it matters.

Flags, convenience and bending the rules to steal Africa’s fish

Willie — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:46:35 +0000

Greenpeace activists paint 'Plunder' on the side of a Lithuanian super trawler

We’re currently following a stern trawler as it fishes. It’s not the biggest vessel out here, but, like many others it is fishing up and down where the shallow continental shelf meets deeper waters. That there is fish in these waters there is no doubt, and proved by the birds, whales and dolphins we encounter here, as well as the fishing vessels.

But it’s less easy to know just who is fishing, and where this fish will end up.

Take this stern trawler. It flies a Belize flag. That’s Belize in the Caribbean, famed as a haven for wealthy UK tax-dodgers, so you might well think that the ship was owned and operated by a company in Belize, right?

Wrong. From what we can fathom it is actually owned and operated by a company in Latvia. That’s Latvia, in the EU, on the balmy shores of the Baltic. A far cry from the Caribbean.

We’ve seen other similarly confusingly flagged ships out here hoovering up fish from West African waters. Despite the flag that says ‘St. Kitts & Nevis’ or ‘St. Vincent & the Grenadines’, the money, management and power lead back to places like Lithuania, Iceland, Spain, Russia, and even Belgium.

So what exactly is going on? Why on earth would all these European countries be linked to Caribbean flags? What next, Belize and St. Kitts to enter the Eurovision Song Contest?!

Well, these vessels are using so-called flags of convenience, by registering or operating the vessel nominally from a different country they can get either access to a share in their quota, or manage to avoid some of the more punitive rules, and costs. So for a Europe-based company, looser laws and lower labour costs in somewhere like the Caribbean suddenly becomes a very lucrative prospect.

What this means is not only are West Africa’s waters being fished out by the ‘legitimised plunder’ of boats like the PFA, and pirate vessels operating outwith regulations, but they are also being emptied by these quasi-legitimate vessels exchanging flags as casually as business cards.

All of this leads to an increasingly crowded sea out here off Mauritania. On land some 1.5 million artisanal fishermen fish along the coasts of West Africa and depend directly on it for their and their communities’ survival. Out to sea, fishing boats from Europe and Asia do whatever deals it takes to fish cheaply, and efficiently to haul in enormous catches of the same fish the locals depend on.

Most of this fish, much already processed onboard the ships, will probably be landed through the port Las Palmas and off to European and Asian markets – adding insult to injury to the West African people whose fish is being stolen from right under their own noses.

Those of us living in the developed north owe it to our brothers and sisters in Africa to give them a fairer deal and a fighting chance. Stealing their livelihoods for cheap fish is anything but that. Europe is currently looking regulations covering how their vessels fish overseas. Clearly, the EU at least needs to make sure its member states are not using these dodgy deals to avoid playing by the rules.

Willie MacKenzie, Oceans Campaigner is currently on the Arctic Sunrise

What is the UK’s biggest fishing boat doing in West African seas?

Willie — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:04:36 +0000

UK registered supertrawler Cornelis Vrolijk fishing off Mauritania

Image caption: UK registered supertrawler Cornelis Vrolijk fishing off Mauritania

I’m out in the Atlantic Ocean, somewhere off Mauritania in West Africa, aboard the Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise. We’re here to document and expose the shocking overfishing of Africa’s coastal seas by huge fishing vessels from the EU and elsewhere.

Although I’ve only been onboard a few days, we’ve already seen dozens of fishing boats, from Russia, China, the Europe and elsewhere. Many of these are ‘legitimately’ fishing here, with access agreements with the Mauritanian government, but the sheer scale of the fishing is difficult to take in.

Just this morning we encountered a 115m long ship called the Cornelis Vrolijk. Despite the name this is a UK-registered vessel, with the port of Hull proudly painted on its hull. It is in fact the UK’s largest fishing vessel, a supersized trawler longer than a football pitch, and weighing about the same as 700 double-decker buses. It looks more like a cruise liner, or military vessel than a fishing boat.

The Cornelis Vrolijk is not the biggest ship out here, there are others even bigger. They are floating factories with the ability to catch and process hundreds of tonnes of fish in a single day. We’ve worked out that the biggest of these trawlers can catch in one day what would take 56 local traditional West African fishing boats a whole year. Since these huge powerful boats have the ability to fish relentlessly, the overall toll on the seas here is immense.

Already many of the fish species they are catching are considered ‘overexploited’ here. Although what is worse is that they are effectively stealing fish and livelihoods from local fishing communities. And all of that with the backing of EU subsidies.

This shouldn’t be happening. We are simply exporting our overfishing and our overcapacity to other parts of the world, stealing fish and trashing coastal communities in the process.

Just this week EU ministers agreed some well-sounding words on this sort of fishery (what they call the ‘external dimension’ = EU fishing in non-EU waters), and the UK fisheries minister has been leading the charge on that. We need now to have those sentiments enforced in reality.

Europe cannot continue to hoover up fish from West Africa’s seas. We should instead be working with countries in Africa and elsewhere to develop their own fisheries sustainably, including proper enforcement ability and onshore jobs in processing industries. For the developing world fish is a security issue, a food security issue, and a development issue, and the EU has an obligation to see it that way too.

UK minister Benyon flexing his political muscles in Brussels

Willie — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:30:10 +0000

Last year Richard Benyon met with Greenpeace and a delegation of West African fishermen

Image caption: Last year Richard Benyon met with Greenpeace and a delegation of West African fishermen

EU council meetings are rarely something that the vast majority of us get excited about. These meetings are when the representatives from each of the EU governments get together, to discuss specific topics. Usually it’s the relevant minister who goes, but they are effectively deputising for their government.

This week it’s the turn of Common Fisheries Policy (CFP, to its friends) reform on the agenda. That’s the once-in-a-decade chance to overhaul Europe’s fish laws.

This matters. Not just to politicians, or fishermen, or environmentalists – but to everyone who eats fish, wants to eat fish, or who cares about our seas.

So, the bad news first. As reported in the Guardian, a bunch of EU member states, led by the vested interests of France and Spain, has made a ‘Declaration on Discards’. On the face of it, this may seem innocuous and reasonable – but it’s the sentiment behind it, and the reality of what it represents that matters. This is basically an attempt to slow down or stop any progress on tackling discards, as a reaction to the proposal for a ban on throwing away perfectly good fish. To you and I, defending discards is, understandably, ridiculous … but that’s where we are.

Sure, stopping discards was never going to be easy, but it simply needs to happen. A ban on discards won’t solve a broken CFP in itself, but it will focus efforts on more selective methods of fishing that don’t catch unwanted species in the first place.

And hopefully, getting an agreement on a discard ban will let us move forward to deal with all the other things we urgently need to fix about Europe’s fishing laws too, such as indefensible subsidies, and the imbalance between fishing sectors.

There is hope for optimism though, in a debate on the CFP in Westminster yesterday, the UK fisheries minister, Richard Benyon reaffirmed a commitment to ending discards and confirmed that the UK was NOT going to sign the French declaration on discards at the council meeting.

And Benyon’s opposite number, Fiona O’ Donnell MP also raised the problematic issue of how we distribute the UK’s fishing quota. In particular she was highlighting the concerns of the low-impact, smaller-scale, inshore fishermen who feel that the biggest challenge they have is simply unfair access to the fishing quotas that are already out there. That’s something we in the UK could, and should, address ourselves.

Clearly, there is still a lot to do domestically, in Europe, and even farther afield.

We are effectively exporting our overfishing addiction to African, Asian and other waters by sending huge, destructive fishing vessels to these distant waters. This has had a devastating impact on local communities, often entirely dependent on fishing for their livelihoods. We’ve estimated that just one of these super-trawlers can catch and process in a day what it would take 56 local pirogues a whole year.

That’s why our ship, the Arctic Sunrise, is in West African waters taking action to highlight the plunder of these seas by the EU and others.

But there’s some hope for some good news from Europe on this. Monday’s council meeting looks set to agree a stronger line on how Europe’s distant water fleets operate. And in no small part that is thanks to the UK’s own fisheries minister, Richard Benyon, who has been a passionate advocate for a responsible approach to West African fisheries.

Real change in Europe’s fish laws needs bold champions, like Benyon. So, for once let’s enjoy applauding a Minister for doing a good job, and encourage him to keep up the good work.

Look out for updates from our team in West Africa, and an update after the Council meeting on how things are progressing in Europe.

The Italian Job: reeling in the Italian tuna industry

simon clydesdale — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:56:34 +0000

Tuna and bycatch caught in the east Pacific

Image caption: Tuna and bycatch caught in the east Pacific

The sands in the tuna campaign have shifted again, and the oceans and tuna will ultimately be better off for it. Our Italian colleagues have just announced that the local tinned tuna brand Mareblu has committed to stop using Fads (fish aggregation devices) - the destructive marine minefields that have been blighting the oceans for decades.

Fads help boats catch tuna, but in the process they kill juvenile tuna and tuna species at risk of extinction, as well as sharks, rays and other marine life. Picture a billion tins of needless bycatch every year.

By the end of 2016, all Mareblu’s tuna will instead be caught using either pole and line, or purse seine nets without Fads. They will also support the Pacific Commons marine reserves, which are areas vital to the long term health of tuna populations.

Despite this great progress, the campaign in Italy won’t be resting on its laurels, with promising but unsubstantiated noises coming from the giant European tuna brand Bolton. Also coming soon is a new Italian tinned tuna league table.

This success has its roots in the UK campaign we ran last year, which won commitments from all major players to completely clean up tinned tuna in this country, the world’s second largest market. The final part of the jigsaw clicked into place when John West committed to dumping Fads. John West is one of a trio of tuna brands in the MW Brands stable, along with Italy's Mareblu and Petit Navire in France. In turn, MW Brands is owned by Thai Union, the world’s largest seafood company.

The Mareblu shift is very welcome and means MW Brands is now beginning to address the glaring double standards within its brands and markets, whereby John West had committed to clean up its act but their other brands had not. The only logical and consistent step now is for MW Brands to clean up its house completely and ensure its French tuna brand Petit Navire shakes off its Fad addiction too.

Petit Navire sticks out like a sore thumb now for MW Brands. Latest figures show that close to half of MWBrand’s turnover comes from France, with Petit Navire responsible for nearly one-third of overall tuna sales.

It’s a no-brainer. The French are certainly familiar with change, so why deny the French consumer the sustainable tuna offered to the British and Italians?

But the story goes far beyond Europe: as is always the case with tuna, it's a truly global resource. Thai Union also owns a major US brand – Chicken of the Sea. (Yes, I know. Don’t even ask). Thai Union is a massive company, with ambitious plans for expansion. Their history of acquisitions and wheeler-dealing suggest they know a thing or two about staying ahead of the curve. But at present the company is somewhat schizophrenic: MW Brands (which has ambitious expansion plans for new European markets) is converting two of its three tuna brands to sustainable fishing methods, yet in the States Chicken of the Sea remains wedded to Fads and all the destruction they entail.

So one side of the business – MW Brands – now gets it, and is changing to create a sustainable platform for commercial success where profit co-exists with, and is reinforced by, protection for tuna stocks, ocean ecosystems and important marine areas. This is not a zero-sum game but try telling Chicken of the Sea that. The US side of the business is sticking its fingers in its ears shouting la-la-la-can’t-hear-you-la-la-la. Not a great backdrop for prospective investors. Time for some sound business sense to be imported from Bangkok methinks.

So to conclude: a great chapter in Italy, but this story has some way to go yet. The global tuna industry is beginning to take its head out of the sand as it slowly wakes up to the new reality that Fad-caught tuna is no longer acceptable. There’s simply no future for businesses that knowingly use unnecessarily destructive methods, destroying marine life as well as their own reputations. It’s time to sink or swim.

Video: How Europe’s plunder of West African waters is affecting local communities

hayley.baker — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:25:07 +0000

This week as our crew on the Arctic Sunrise highlights the mass plundering taking place at sea by European super trawlers in West Africa; our team on land in Senegal and Mauritania have met some of the communities who have been affected by this modern day pillage.

They met local fishermen who are forced to go further out to sea in their traditional boats as their local waters have been dramatically overfished by foreign vessels. Some of these trawlers - many from Europe - are literally floating fish factories, capable of catching, processing and freezing 250 tonnes a day.

In contrast local fishermen in their traditional pirogue boats, are putting their lives in dangers to catch enough fish to feed their families and pull together a basic livelihood. To make matters worse, according to local fishermen, these super trawlers sometimes illegally fish in their zone close to the coast, without lights. Just recently two fishermen in Mauritania were killed when their boat collided with a European trawler.

Last year in the UK, as part of our Africa Voices tour, UK Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon met fishermen from Senegal, Mauritania and Cape Verde and was really moved by their stories. He has since referred to them in a number of speeches, and it is partly why he is so committed to making sure the laws that govern EU vessels in distant waters do not negatively impact on local people lives.

We are now urging Richard Benyon to show leadership in Europe by calling for reform that stops the European fleet from destroying these communities who rely on them on these fish to survive.

Read our report: The Price of Plunder: How European taxpayers are subsidising factory trawlers to strip fish from West Africa’s water.