Greenpeace today urged the UK Government to do more to enforce international fishing regulations that aim to protect endangered species.
The call comes following a high-seas chase that culminated in the capture of a suspected pirate vessel loaded with millions of pounds worth of the endangered Patagonian toothfish.
Willie Mackenzie, Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner, said: "The UK Government is failing deplorably by not supporting the solution to this problem, which is making CCAMLR (Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Resources) solely responsible for independently policing toothfish fisheries."
"And by opposing the inclusion of the Patagonian toothfish as a species protected by CITES (Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species), the Government is failing further to support the stringent measures needed to stop these pirates pillaging rare and endangered fish."
"To make matters worse, the UK Government is supporting the eco-labelling of toothfish from the South Georgia fishery under the Marine Stewardship Council scheme. Giving an eco-label to a fish that is as controversial as toothfish is bound to mislead consumers and make a bad situation worse."
Scientists have determined that the population of Patagonian toothfish in at least one heavily fished area has declined by 60%, and toothfish fisheries may collapse by 2010 if pirate poaching continues at its current rate.
Greenpeace is urging consumers to avoid toothfish, which is known by many different names across the globe - Chilean Sea Bass, Antarctic Sea Bass, Australian Sea Bass, Antarctic Icefish, Black Hake, Mero - and all are facing commercial extinction.
The method of catching toothfish, which are particularly vulnerable to over-fishing as they do not reach sexual maturity until they are almost 10 years old, can also have devastating effects on endangered birds. Estimates suggest that 100,000 albatrosses and petrels are killed each year after becoming hooked on fishing lines.
Notes for editors
The Patagonian toothfish fishery is managed under Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (GSGSSI) law, and the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Resources (CCAMLR), of which the UK is a member, is responsible for regulating it and setting quotas. CCAMLR estimates that in 2001, 51,129 metric tons (mt) of Toothfish were caught in the Southern Ocean. CCAMLR is only certain that 13,271 mt of the total yearly catch is caught legally, while 7,599 mt is caught illegally, leaving a further 30,259 mt harvested under unregulated conditions.
Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is pushing the Toothfish fishery to imminent collapse. More than 17 countries are involved, either legally or illegally, in the highly profitable fishery. Unscrupulous ship owners flaunt legal quotas and regulations to take untold quantities of this fish. By some estimates, the illegal catch is over three times greater than the legal landings, and has an estimated value of $500 million.
CCAMLR has approved legal limits of nearly 20,000 tons of Toothfish for member nations, but has taken little action to stop rampant pirate fishing. Pirate fishermen often transfer their illegally caught Toothfish to legal boats for import.
