http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-100612-1.html
Operation Blue Rage: Day Five of the Mediterranean Patrol
Saturday, June 12th, 2010
Location: Off the Coast of Libya
This morning the crew of the Steve Irwin came across the fifty meter Italian seiner Kleos towing a cage full of bluefin tuna. The ship was being inspected by the ICCAT (International Committee on the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna) fisheries patrol vesselJean Charcot. The vessel was legal but routine inspections are conducted to ensure that the catch is of the proper size. We witnessed the ICCAT divers inspecting the catch and then continued on south towards Libya and the coast of North Africa.
The ICCAT inspection vessel informed us that although Libya comes under the regulations, they do not conduct inspections in the waters that Libya claims authority over. The Libyan navy undertakes their own inspections.
The Greenpeace crews refused to enter Libyan waters back in 2007, and have never done so during the fishing season. Today, the crew of the Steve Irwin decided to enter Libyan waters for the first time to observe the tuna fishery.
The winds continue to blow between twenty and forty knots, which means no fishing can happen.
So far the crew of the Steve Irwin have not seen any sign of illegal fishing activity. Here is good reason to believe that poaching activity has been lessened due to increased enforcement activities and the growing international awareness of the threat to the bluefin tuna.
It is frustrating to see the cages full of bluefin tuna being transported to tuna farms off Malta and Tunisia, but due to the compromise brokered at the last CITES meeting, these legal takes are untouchable. Sea Shepherd, being an anti-poaching organization, is limited to targeting the illegal activities.
What I find striking is what we do not see. I have navigated these waters since 1971, and there has been a steady diminishment. There are few birds and we have not seen a single dolphin or whale during this entire voyage. I remember when there was never a time that birds were not following the ship and never a day that we did not see a pod of dolphins or whales. The sad fact is that we forget what we have lost as we adapt to diminishment.
http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-100613-1.html
Operation Blue Rage: Crossing the Line of Death
Day Six of the Mediterranean Patrol
Sunday, June 13th, 2010
Location: In the Gulf of Sidra off the Coast of Libya
Report by Captain Paul Watson
Sea Shepherd has crossed the “Line of Death,” and we are now inside the waters claimed by Libya.
The line of death in the Gulf of Sidra was the line Libyan President Gaddafi drew in the early seventies. The line is 33 degrees and 30 minutes North.
Last night, I had the ship stopped for the night to drift. We resumed our patrol through Libyan waters at dawn.
We decided it would not be wise to deploy the helicopter on any long-range reconnaissance missions in Libyan waters knowing that the Libyan military would consider it a hostile aircraft. It was a U.S. Naval dogfight with Libyan MIG Soviet fighter aircraft in August 1981 that inspired the movie Top Gun.
We suspect that below the line of death in the Gulf of Sidra that the slaughter of the species Thunnus thynnus (bluefin tuna) is underway. Not that Libya is alone in over exploiting the bluefin: the entire Mediterranean has become a killing ground for this magnificent fish and the line between legal and illegal fishing is becoming blurred. The bottom line is that just one of these fish is worth a great deal of money, and greed is the motivation for what is an industry that is investing in extinction.
Around midday, we came upon the Libyan seiner Misurata towing a net. The helicopter and the Delta inflatable were deployed, divers were sent into the cage, and it was found that the cage was empty.
The Steve Irwin continued its patrol of the waters claimed by Libya. These waters have never been investigated before. The weather is changing and tomorrow marks the last official day for legally taking bluefin tuna by everyone in the Mediterranean, including the Libyans.
We are suspicious of the “legal” fishery. We have seen far too many cages of tuna for the tonnage allotted. All of these boats claim to be licensed and they all seem to be registered as legal. There are simply too many fishing boats for a quota of only 13,000 tons. Something is not right with the entire picture.
So far we have had not had any contact with Libyan authorities.
Our patrol continues.
http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-100614-1.html
Operation Blue Rage: Inside the Line of Death in the Gulf of Sidra
Day Seven of the Mediterranean Patrol
Monday, June 14th, 2010
Location: In the Gulf of Sidra off the Coast of Libya
Report by Captain Paul Watson
We have been in the Gulf of Sidra off the coast of Libya for over twenty-four hours. We have seen two legally registered seiners, one towing an empty cage and the other underway and not fishing.
The seas have become like glass and the weather is hot and humid as we continue our patrol.
We have covered a great deal of the area and there seems to be a serious diminishment of fishing activity. This could be attributed to increased enforcement or to an unusual scarcity of bluefin in these waters.
Our helicopter pilot Chris Aultman has undertaken two reconnaissance flights, which he did with a mixture of trepidation and excitement. He pointed out that he is the first American pilot in an American helicopter to venture into the Gulf of Sidra passing across Colonel Gaddafi’s infamous “Line of Death.”
Although we did not find any poachers today, we did save a life. We passed a green sea turtle struggling on the surface with its back flippers entangled in a large heavy plastic bag. Two of the crew dove in and cut the bag away and we watched the turtle swim off tired but unharmed. The swimmers brought the bag back on board, a cement bag of heavy plastic from Turkey.
Yesterday, Greenpeace activists on the Arctic Sunrise attempted to open a tuna cage some twenty-two miles south of Malta. They were prevented from releasing any fish by the intervention of the Maltese Navy. Malta has stated that they will be seeking criminal charges against Greenpeace for the incident.
The missions of Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd are quite different. Greenpeace is engaged in protest against the legal tuna fishery and Sea Shepherd is engaged in the more difficult pursuit of unlawful activities, the unregulated and unlicensed bluefin tuna poachers.
There really should not be a legal fishery at all, and if the fishery was not as lucrative as it is, the bluefin would now be fully protected as an endangered species. But with a price of between $75,000 and $150,000 USD per fish, the days of the bluefin are numbered unless this unique aquatic predator is given full and absolute protection.
It is incredibly frustrating to see these “legal” cages, but it is fruitless to try and free them because they are under military protection and any attempt will be merely symbolic and unsuccessful. That is why we are concentrating on looking for tuna taken illegally and not under the protection of the military. We can take on the fishermen, but not the guns of the Navy, and we have no interest in capturing headlines. Our interest is in capturing poachers.
I do however think that the presence of both Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd this year has motivated the European nations to be much more vigilant in the enforcement of the regulations, more than any year before. So if nothing else this has served to reduce the illegalities by the licensed fleets.
http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-100612-1.html
Japan Dives Deep into Depravity to Destroy the Whales
Commentary by Captain Paul Watson
It has been an open secret for years that Japan bribes other nations to vote against the moratorium on commercial whaling. Everybody involved in the issue who has attended a meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has seen the flagrant influence peddling, the expensive dinners and hotel rooms, the call girls and the gifts bestowed upon representatives of under-developed nations in return for their vote to slaughter whales.
Japan has been playing the pimp to IWC representatives for decades. We’ve heard delegates from African and the West Indies bragging around the bar about the girls provided for them by Japan, we have seen them taking cash from members of the Japanese whaling delegation, and we have been witness to their slavish parroting of Japanese propaganda in defense of whaling, and we have seen them unquestionably mimic Japan’s vote on every resolution without thought or argument.
What other reason would any nation have to attend the IWC other than to kill whales or to conserve and protect whales? Both sides have vested interests. One side wants to profit from bloody slaughter, and the other wishes to profit from whale watching or to satisfy the interests of their conservation minded citizens. A third group simply offers their votes for sale. These are nations that have no vested interest in whaling, and in many cases their positions are in direct contradiction to the opinions and positions of their own citizens. It’s not about whales or whaling, it’s about having a good time and making the Japanese pay for it.
In other words, they whore out their vote in exchange for cash and sexual favors.
And the official Japanese whaling delegation is more than willing to fork out the dough.
It’s a sleazy annual orgy of special interests in a different exotic location every year. This year it is Morocco, last year it was Madeira, and Santiago, Chile the year before that.
Japan has tossed out science as a criteria for management and has found that money is a better “management” tool. Science tends to be inconvenient, whereas cash can always be counted on to deliver desired results.
Earlier this year, the credibility of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was compromised when Japan and China bribed the votes to ensure that every marine species recommended by scientists for listing as endangered were not listed. And thus the five species of shark, two species of coral, the bluefin tuna, and the Polar bear were tossed back to the human jackals to be further diminished.
This year Japan is leaning on developed nations with threats of trade retaliation and bribing underdeveloped nations with cash, travel, and especially talented comfort women to secure their votes to lift the international moratorium on commercial whaling.
All of this has been known for years by those who attend the annual meetings of the IWC.
Now on the eve of the IWC meeting in Morocco, the United Kingdom’s Sunday Times has rocked the commission to it’s core by exposing the political corruption and economic leverage that the Japanese have been encouraging to force the IWC to submit to their demands for the restoration on commercial whaling.
The Sunday Times investigation has exposed Japan for bribing small nations with cash and prostitutes to gain their support for the mass slaughter of whales in a brilliant and well orchestrated undercover sting that found officials from six countries who were willing to consider selling their votes on the International Whaling Commission.
The Times revelations come as Japan seeks to break the 24-year moratorium on commercial whaling.
Japan denies buying the votes of IWC members. However, the Sunday Times filmed officials from pro-whaling governments admitting:
– They voted with the whalers because of the large amounts of aid from Japan. One said he was not sure if his country had any whales in its territorial waters. Others are landlocked.
– They receive cash payments in envelopes at IWC meetings from Japanese officials who pay their travel and hotel bills.
– One disclosed that call girls were offered when fisheries ministers and civil servants visited Japan for meetings.
Barry Gardiner, an MP and former Labour biodiversity minister, said the investigation revealed “disgraceful, shady practice”, which is “effectively buying votes.”
The reporters, posing as representatives of a billionaire conservationist, approached officials from pro-whaling countries and offered them an aid package to change their vote.
The governments of St. Kitts and Nevis, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Grenada, Republic of Guinea, and Ivory Coast all entered negotiations to sell their votes in return for aid.
The top fisheries official for Guinea said Japan usually gave his minister a “minimum” of $1,000 a day spending money in cash during IWC and other fisheries meetings.
He said three Japanese organizations were used to channel the payments to his country: the fisheries agency, the aid agency, and the Overseas Fisheries Co-operation Foundation.
Japan has recruited some of the world’s smallest countries on to the IWC to bolster its support. A senior fisheries official for the Marshall Islands said, “We support Japan because of what they give us.”
A Kiribati fisheries official said his country’s vote was determined by the “benefit” it received in aid. He, too, said Japan gave delegates expenses and spending money.
The IWC commissioner for Tanzania said “good girls” were made available at the hotels for ministers and senior fisheries civil servants during all-expenses paid trips to Japan.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will have representatives in Morocco later this month, but more importantly we will be returning to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to once again negate illegal Japanese whaling profits and to once again save the lives of as many whales as possible next December.
During the last season, Sea Shepherd’s pursuit and intervention of the Japanese whaling fleet saved the lives of 528 whales, saving more whales than the whalers were able to kill.
Until there is a top to bottom reconstitution of the IWC addressing the organization’s endemic corruption, Sea Shepherd will consider the results of the coming vote at the 62nd IWC sleazy junket in Morocco as being unrepresentative, fraudulent, and irrelevant.
Sea Shepherd
