Confrontation at Sea

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Confrontation at Sea

 

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Article: Confrontation at Sea

 

 

Confrontation at Sea

 

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Oceana's

research catamaran, Ranger,

filming and photographing illegal driftnet fishing off

southern Italy, was

chased in the high seas and narrowly escaped a ramming

attempt by angry

Sicilian commercial fishermen whose colleagues have

been arrested and their

boats and nets confiscated in the past two weeks as

the international ocean

conservation group works to stop the forbidden

practice that kills dolphins by

the hundreds in the Mediterranean.

Four days later, the swordfish fishermen tracked

down Ranger's crew at a

small marina. The fishermen issued death threats,

demanding the crew turn over

the film and photos.

" We are astounded to see the lengths to which

these illegal commercial

fishermen will go to stop the world from witnessing

their foul practice, " said

Andrew Sharpless, Oceana's chief executive officer.

" The European Union has

paid boat owners up to $50,000 a boat to convert to

legal fishing gear, but

many simply pocket the money and keep fishing with

driftnets. The result is

the deaths of dolphins, sea turtles and other marine

wildlife in these

curtains of death. "

Since mid-June, Oceana's Ranger has been

patrolling the Tyrrhenian Sea --

the western Mediterranean area between the southern

tip of the Italian boot

and the islands of Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia --

photographing and

videotaping illegal driftnet boats in ports and at

sea. Ranger's crew has

taken down boat names and registration numbers and

compared them to the list

of boat owners who obtained European Union and Italian

government subsidies of

up to US$50,000 per boat to convert to legal nets, a

program that has

disbursed more than 200 million euros. Many have

pocketed the money and kept

on using driftnets.

" Some boats hid their illegal nets under plywood

covers, away from prying

eyes, but we still were able to see the winches and

light buoys; others

displayed the driftnets without concern, " said marine

biologist Xavier Pastor,

Oceana's vice president for Europe and leader of the

Ranger patrol mission.

" We have reported these boats to the Italian

authorities. "

Police have arrested crews and confiscated three

boats and nets, including

the Stella del Sud at the Ischia Island harbor.

On July 29, Ranger visited harbors in the islands

of Sant Antioco and

Calasetta, in western Sardinia, then went out to sea

on patrol. At dawn on

Sunday, July 31, Ranger spotted the Alba Chiara, in

international waters, in

the process of hauling in the last hundred meters of

her long driftnet.

" We carefully approached the boat and placed

Ranger in a position that did

not interfere with their operation or safety but

allowed our filming crew an

excellent vantage point to record this action, " said

Pastor. " As soon as the

fishermen realized what we were doing, they went mad,

screaming and shouting

at us. They cut loose the rest of their net and came

at us. "

Ranger's captain, Carlos Perez, immediately

engaged the Ranger's engines

and made to leave the area. The Alba Chiara opened its

throttle and gave chase

at full speed.

" They approached the Ranger at a distance of 20 to

30 meters of our aft,

and we had to engage in evasive maneuvers to avoid

being rammed, " said Pastor.

" We made a frantic radio call for help and told the

Italian coast guard of the

Alba Chiara's attempt to ram us. "

As soon as the SOS call was aired, the Alba Chiara

ceased the chase and

turned back to pick up its nets and buoys. Ranger

turned around and followed.

Once the fishing gear was loaded, the Alba Chiara

headed for port. The coast

guard told Ranger they would be waiting at two

possible ports to intercept the

Alba Chiara.

The second incident happened on Thursday, Aug. 4.

Eight fishermen,

including one who identified himself at the Alba

Chiara's skipper, located

Ranger at the 160-berth Marina Siffredo in San Pietro

Island, the westernmost

of the islands surrounding Sardinia.

The fishermen approached the four Ranger crew

members who were walking on

a pier near Ranger, shouted insults and issued death

threats, including making

gestures to signal throat-cutting. The fishermen

wanted the Ranger crew to

turn over the film and photos. The marina owners

summoned local police, which

took down IDs and escorted the fishermen off the

property, but made no

arrests.

Ranger is continuing its patrols. The EU directive

prohibiting driftnets

(EU Regulation 1239/98) and Italian legislation

prohibits the use by any

European Union vessel of driftnets of any size. In

1998, when the legislation

was adopted, Italy grudgingly went along only after a

threatened trade boycott

by the United States. Since then, Oceana and other

ocean conservation groups

have been attempting to make Italy enforce the law.

Driftnets, also called gillnets, are mesh panels

of net made from plastic

strands designed to catch fish by their gills. They do

such a good job that in

the process they also capture many other kinds of fish

and ocean wildlife,

which are usually discarded as unwanted bycatch.

Globally, gillnets catch and

kill more than 30 different species of marine mammals,

including bottlenose

dolphins and harbor porpoises. These fisheries deploy

hundreds of yards of

net and leave them in the water for long periods of

time, from several hours

to several days. Sea turtles entangled underwater in

a driftnet can drown in

under an hour of forced submergence.

Ranger, whose port of registry is Annapolis, Md.,

recently completed an

11,000-mile transoceanic voyage, Oceana's first ocean

expedition, leaving

California in January and arriving at its European

base of Majorca in June.

Ranger and its crew visited a dozen marine

biodiversity hotspots in the

Pacific and Atlantic, capturing 400 hours of unique

underwater photography and

7,000 high-resolution still photographs. Nearly 100

volunteers and Oceana

staff from a half-dozen countries contributed to the

voyage, including

biologists, underwater camera operators, photographers

and support divers.

 

Oceana campaigns to protect and restore the

world's oceans. Our teams of

marine scientists, economists, lawyers and advocates

win specific and concrete

policy changes to reduce pollution and to prevent the

irreversible collapse of

fish populations, marine mammals and other sea life.

Global in scope and

dedicated to conservation, Oceana has campaigners

based in North America

(Washington, DC; Juneau, AK; Los Angeles, CA), Europe

(Madrid, Spain;

Brussels, Belgium) and South America (Santiago,

Chile). More than 300,000

members and e-activists in over 150 countries have

already joined Oceana. For

more information, please visit http://www.Oceana.org.

 

 

 

SOURCE Oceana

Web Site: http://www.oceana.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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