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Greenpeace activists target Taiwanese fishing boats

Sacks of shark fins and tails that Greenpeace activists say they found onboard the Taiwanese fishing vessel Nian Sheng 3 in international waters in the Pacific Ocean are pictured on Monday. Ship-borne activists from Greenpeace said yesterday they had targeted fishing boats from South Korea, Taiwan and the US in high-seas protests against the “plundering” of tuna in the Pacific. PHOTO: AFP

Ship-borne activists said yesterday they had targeted fishing boats from South Korea, Taiwan and the US in high-seas protests against the “plundering” of tuna in the Pacific.

In the latest confrontation, crew from the Greenpeace ship Esperanza boarded a Taiwanese boat, the Nian Sheng 3, to inspect the catch and then escorted the boat out of international waters, a spokesman said.

The captain of the tuna boat, which also contained hundreds of frozen shark fins and tails, allowed the activists to board, Greenpeace campaign leader Lagi Toribau said by telephone from the Esperanza.

“Greenpeace are not a violent campaigning organization,” he said, while adding that the activists were prepared to “interfere with their physical fishing activities in order for us to save the last tuna stocks.”

On Sunday, Esperanza crew members set out to a small boat to paint the side of a US vessel, Cape Finisterre, with the words “Tuna Overkill” and asked it to leave international waters, Greenpeace said in a statement.

Last Thursday the group protested alongside the South Korean ship Olympus before activists “confiscated a fish aggregation device” used to attract tuna.

The latest action took place in international waters near the Solomon Islands where “legal fishers and pirates are both plundering Pacific tuna,” Greenpeace said.

Describing tuna as the world’s favorite fish, Toribau said “advances in technology mean large ships are now able to catch as much fish in two days as the fishers of the small Pacific island countries can catch in a year.”

The future of the comparatively healthy western and central Pacific tuna fishery is crucial for small Pacific states. Tuna is the only major economic resource for many, as well as one of the most important food sources.

Currently license fees provide Pacific states a small return of around 5 percent to 6 percent of the US$3 billion annual catch in the region.

Toribau said the fishing carried out by the ships “is technically not illegal but is unregulated,” and Greenpeace was campaigning for the pockets of international waters between the island nations to be declared marine reserves.

The Esperanza was heading for a stopover in the Solomon Islands before returning to international waters to continue the protests, Toribau said.
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