Madrid, Spain, 10th March 2006: As a pirate fishing vessel loaded with fish stolen from West Africa makes its way towards Las Palmas, Greenpeace and the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) this morning presented evidence to the Fisheries Ministry in Madrid, outlining why the authorities should ban the ship from the port when it arrives - in two or three days time.
The environmental and human rights groups documented the refrigerated cargo ship, Binar 4 (1) four days ago, transshipping fish in international waters. The fish had been caught in Guinean waters, and therefore should only have been transshipped in the port of Conakry according to Guinean law (2). The reefer is headed for Las Palmas, a port notorious for allowing pirate vessels to offload stolen fish, with the Greenpeace ship M.Y Esperanza following behind.
"This is Spain's chance to prove they are serious about making piracy history," said Sebastian Losada of Greenpeace Spain, after delivering the documents to officials in Madrid. "If they do not act, they will become partners in crime with the pirates."
During the time spent by the Esperanza was in West Africa, Greenpeace and EJF witnessed 104 foreign flagged vessels, from Korea, China, Italy, Liberia and Belize. The evidence gathered suggests that 50% of the vessels observed were engaged in, or linked to illegal fishing activities, including fishing without a license, operating with no name or hiding their identity, trawling inside the 12-mile zone restricted to local fishermen, or transshipping anywhere other than the Guinean capital Conakry. The Binar 4 was taking fish from ships licensed to fish, but all the vessels involved had broken the laws concerning transshipments.
"In the past few weeks we have begun to unravel the web of deceit around pirate fishing," said Greenpeace campaigner Sarah Duthie, from on board the Esperanza. "The way the legal and illegal ships work together is designed to deceive, but in the end it is a simple case of stealing food from others."
"Unless there is concrete and sustained action against pirate fishing by all governments the problem will continue to grow," warned Helene Bours of Environmental Justice Foundation. "Local communities and the environment will not survive unless the pirate fishing industry is wiped out."(3)
Notes:
- http://www.greenpeace.org/binar4casestudy
- According to Guinean law, fish can only be caught by licensed vessels and any transshipment must be done in the Port of Conakry. According to the UN FAO Model Scheme for Port Control, pirate fishing vessels or those supporting them should be denied access to ports and services. Through its National Plan of Action to Fight Illegal Fishing, Spain committed to "prohibit the admission into or departure from port, the access to port services or the landing or transshipping of catches, whenever there are indications of engagement in activities of illegal fishing "
- According to the UN High Seas Task Force on Illegal, Unreported & Unregulated (IUU or pirate) fishing, up to 20% of the global catch is taken illegally - as much as US$9 billion dollars.
Greenpeace and the Environmental Justice Foundation are working together to expose the pirate fishing fleets that operate without sanction across the globe. Together the international environment and human rights organisations are demanding that governments close ports to ban pirates, deny them access to markets and prosecute companies supporting them.
The drive to make piracy history is the second leg of a 14-month global expedition "Defending Our Oceans", the most ambitious ship expedition ever undertaken by Greenpeace to expose the threats to the oceans and demand a global network of properly enforced marine reserves covering 40% of the worlds oceans. Greenpeace aims to gather a million Ocean Defenders by the end of the expedition in February 2007.
oceans.greenpeace.org
www.ejfoundation.org
