Greenpeace USA | What we do | Contact us | Donate
By: Joan Meris, Greenpeace Phillipines
Pirates, in my imagination, are valiant seafarers in search of richness and glory in the high seas. In the olden days, they where regarded with fear and loathing for tales run wild of ghastly misdemeanors. They rob, hijack and loot treasures – questionable acts indeed. But they exude such an aura of fierceness and might that one can’t help but get enthralled in their way of life.
Wednesday, during our joint enforcement exercise with the Palauan authorities, we discovered a suspected illegal operation on board a long liner in Palau’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
The Taiwanese vessel the Sheng Chi Hui was spotted by our helicopter early yesterday morning. As they approached our photographer managed to get shots of shark finning occurring in Palauan waters, a blatant breach of the conditions of the Shark Sanctuary. When the patrol boat arrived, there was no sign of sharks on board but based on our photographic evidence, the Palauan Government has ordered that the ship be detained. The Esperanza is escorting the Sheng Chi Hui to port alongside the Palauan patrol vessel, the PSS President H.I.Remeliik,
But what is enforcement, and why does it matter?
Overfishing is the biggest threat facing the future of the Pacific and its tuna stocks -one of the world’s last abundant tuna fisheries. The environmental, economic and social impacts of overfishing and pirate fishing are devastating to Pacific Island communities. Pacific Islanders are being robbed of the fish that is their primary source of protein, and the backbone of their economies.
There are three levels of pirate fishing formally described as ‘Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated’ fishing.
Illegal fishing refers to activities conducted by fishing vessels that either operate without a licence or is not abiding by the laws and regulations of that particular country or region.
Unreported fishing refers to fishing activities (usually about what they catch, how much they catch or where they fish) which have not been reporting, or have been misreported Greenpeace experienced these activities first hand.
Unregulated fishing refers to fishing activities conducted by vessels without any nationality or by those flying the flag of a country not a member of the fisheries management body that governs that region.
Pirate fishing is stealing. Stolen fish caught in the Pacific are laundered on the global market away from the watchful eyes of authorities, causing a huge economic loss for Pacific Island countries, and preventing proper assessment of tuna species. Without proper stock assessments, sustainable management is impossible
The lack of resources available to effectively patrol the waters of the Western and Central Pacific, the unregulated nature of the high seas, and the inconsistent and unreliable nature of monitoring all make it far too easy for illegal activities to take place out here. These serious loopholes need to be closed and pirate fishing needs to be eliminated.
Undertaking a proper and consistent surveillance and enforcement exercise is a critical component to closing these loopholes.
In the Pacific 17 developing countries with small governments share the migratory tuna stocks, and on average have one or two patrol boat to monitor their vast ocean. Kiribati’s waters, for example, cover an area of over 3 million square miles, yet the country has only one small patrol boat. There are over 6000 vessels registered to operate in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.
All these vessels are supposed to carry what is called a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS). It automatically collects, records and analyses information related to the location and activity of vessels. They are the backbone of surveillance as it is virtually impossible to monitor huge expanses of ocean. When vessels do not report there is no way of knowing how long boats stay out at sea, how much or what they catch.
A normal surveillance and enforcement exercise will target vessels of interest in known hot spots or overt illegal unlicensed vessels or activities. Enforcement officials will board and inspect the vessel at sea and will either order the vessel back to port to get its VMS fixed or impose a fine.
It is rare that Pacific governments get aerial surveillance to extend their range and coverage during a surveillance and enforcement exercise, though France, US, New Zealand and Australia have been providing at sea and air surveillance to the region.
Who rules the seas – the industry, pirates or enforcement?
No matter how many patrol boats or planes we mobilise, illegal fishing will continue. This is multi billion-dollar industry and the Pacific is the largest supplier of tuna in the world. Illegal fishing operations exploit the limitation in resources and capacity available to Pacific governments to properly police their waters. By demanding proper traceability and 100% assurance that the fish you are eating- in a can, fresh or frozen- is coming from a legal and sustainable source we can cut the life line of illegal fishing. They won’t have a reason to continue business as usual if we demand change
Since leaving Port on Monday with the Palauan enforcement vessel the Remeliik, we have found eight illegal Fish Aggregation Devices, checked three suspect ships, documented shark finning in Palau’s shark sanctuary and escorted one vessel back to Port for further investigation.
Follow the last days of the tour
Ahoy there! I’m blogging from the Greenpeace ship Esperanza out here in the Pacific. We’ve just embarked on the second leg of the Defending Our Pacific 2009 tour, which is aimed at getting all four of the high seas pockets you see on the map below (marked in orange) designated as marine reserves – which is to say, closed to ALL fishing.
We left Port Vila, Vanuatu just a few days ago, and are currently in transit, headed back out to the high seas to continue our quest to stop the pillage of international waters by longline and purse seine fishing vessels.
A transit generally means a bit of down time, so I’m taking it upon myself to document some ship life for you. Check out these pics:
Our captain, Madeleine (with binoculars), and second mate, Nadia, on the Espy’s bridge, charting a course out of Port Vila Harbor.
After taking my turn on “whale watch” yesterday evening, I stepped out onto the deck and noticed this high seas sunset. Pretty nice, eh?
For a bit of recent history, check out the blog posts by Mary Ann (here, here, and here), the intrepid webbie who I have replaced onboard (actually I only replaced her as webbie, she’s still onboard as a deckhand and is taking care of our waste and recycling in the role of “chief garbologist” — a noble and selfless job, I can tell you, having helped with the compost yesterday morning). As you can see from the blogs, the first leg of the tour was spent patrolling the first and second high seas zones to help enforce a temporary ban on fish aggregating devices (FADs) – highly destructive devices that catch EVERYTHING indiscriminately. FADs are commonly used by purse seine fishing vessels. We took direct action against those violating the ban. For instance, you can see the crew hauling a FAD we confiscated up on to the Espy here:
On the second leg of the tour, we’re going to continue searching out the pirates and the pillagers, and stand in solidarity with the Pacific island countries who are seeking a closure of the high seas pockets. We are also pushing for the implementation of sensible, sustainable fishing practices rather than longlines, purse seines, FADs, and all the other highly destructive fishing practices that are currently in use. Stay tuned.
Mary Ann Mayo was the webbie onboard the Greenpeace ship Esperanza during the first leg of the Defending Our Pacific 2009 tour.
The last refuge of the last relatively healthy stocks of tuna is found right here in the Pacific. Scientists have been warning for years that the fishing pressure on Pacific tuna must be reduced, yet the Taiwanese-owned, American-flagged super-seiner the American Legacy left the shipyard in Taiwan only last year. Amidst warnings of overfishing and calls for restraint, this brand new super-seiner joined the already vast number of fishing vessels out at sea that are chasing fewer and fewer fish.
© Greenpeace/Paul Hilton
The number 8 in the Chinese culture is considered a lucky number, as the word for eight sounds similar to the word for “prosper” or “wealth.” I am pretty sure the Chen family, which owns a network of Taiwanese companies, had this in mind when they included the triple 8 in the name of their fuel tanker, the MV Fong Seong 888. Good fortune and prosperity. However, the ship’s high seas activities mean bad fortune and poverty for Pacific nations.
The MV Fong Seong 888 was refueling the purse seiner American Legacy in the high seas, near the waters of Kiribati, when we found them.
© Greenpeace/Paul Hilton
The ownership of both vessels links back to the Chen family. Even though these two ships share an owner, they fly under two different flags: the Fong Seong 888 is flagged to Panama while the American Legacyis a US-flagged purse seiner.
Strange to hear, you might say, that these Taiwanese-owned ships are using another country’s flag? The practice of using or flying the flag of another country other than the country of ownership is what is known as ‘flags of convenience’ (FOC). This is done for many different reasons, including cheap registration fees, low or almost no taxes, and the freedom to employ cheap labor. But to the fishing industry, flying flags of convenience also makes it possible to artificially increase the fishing quota from what is assigned to individual nations. And what does this mean? They can fish more than they would be allowed to if they flew the flag of their real country.
Under an agreement called the US Treaty, the United States is entitled to fish in the waters of 16 Pacific nations with up to 40 purse seine vessels. In recent years, the country has had fewer boats than that, but new vessels are being added, flying the US flag even though they’re linked to a major shipbuilding and fishing conglomerate in Taiwan. Fresh from the biggest shipyard in Taiwan and flying the flag of the country with the greatest access to Pacific tuna resources comes the American Legacy. What hope do the tuna have with an alliance like that pitched against them?
Now let’s turn to the Fong Seong 888, one of many tankers operating in the Pacific. These tankers, along with the refrigerated “reefer” vessels that transfer fish, enable fishing fleets to stay at sea for extended periods. Without having to come into port to refuel, take on supplies, and land the fish they have caught, it is much more difficult for authorities to monitor tuna catches in the region. These supply vessels open a gateway for illegally caught fish to leave the region untraced – they are literally fueling and fostering the continued plundering of tuna from the Pacific.
To show our protest for this shameful practice, our Greenpeace activists painted “Fueling Plunder” and “Tuna Plunder” on the hull of the MV Fong Seong 888. It was one of the fastest ship painting actions I have ever seen! And with good cause: having already finished their refueling, we barely had time to paint the campaign message when the purse seiner, MV American Legacy, broke away from the starboard side of Fong Seong 888, and headed away at speed.
© Greenpeace/Paul Hilton
Maybe they were afraid we would “dirty” the fresh new paint on their hull. They should be worried that they’re onboard a brand new industrial fishing vessel, which has added to the bloated fishing capacity in the region even though scientists are warning of overfishing and countries are agreeing to show restraint.
As I look back at the 3 weeks we have been here in the international waters of the Western Pacific, we have come across FADs, documented an illegal transshipment at sea, confiscated longlines and escorted several vessels out of the high seas (read all about it here). This latest deplorable activity – a brand new fishing vessel being refueled at sea – was perfectly legal, yet illustrates the problem of countries building yet more ships when there are already too many. It also raises the issue of flag state responsibility, and the curse of refueling and transshipment at sea. It is amazing just how many loopholes these companies find through which to carry out their operations. If only the fishing nets were this full of loopholes – I doubt that a single tuna would be caught!
With all the resources at their disposal and the capacity to circumvent, exploit and abuse bans and treaties, what will it take to stop these distant fishing nations from robbing the Pacific nations of their own resource?
While our activists painted the hull of the Fong Seong 888, I was watching all the activity from the bridge. As the purse seiner American Legacy broke away, the horizon where she was headed was dark with rain clouds, while amazingly at the stern of the Esperanza, the sun was shining at its brightest! In my mind’s eye I could see the two roads that the Pacific fisheries are facing at the moment: one heading towards a dark future of the continued plunder of the Pacific until this ocean is fished to death, while the other holds a bright future of a healthy and sustainable tuna fisheries.
Which road will the world take?
And America, which would you like to see as your “Legacy” for the Pacific?
-Mary Ann
