As I arrived on the bridge, all faces turned to looked at me. Capitain and perhaps 5 other crew members, along with the videographer, were there already. Atmosphere seemed rather tense, and I could sense that important events were going to take place. "Ivona, we located a Polish trawler this morning, and we would like you to make the first contact, and ask for permission to come on-board", said Frode in a rather serious tone. Synapses fired in my brain, and a certain fear kicked in. Perhaps it was not fear, but a sense of excitement and adrenaline build-up within me. Being one of the two Poles on-board, the request made sense of course, but I knew I could not do the-sailor-talk-protocol-thing, but in my barely-awake state, I also considered that a woman making first contact may soften the often-hardened Polish sailor who may feel less threatened after hearing the voice of a female. Without much further, and highly ineffective, thought processing at this time of the morning, I answered: "Sure, what do I say?". Frode paused for a moment, and said "We would like to see what this trawler is fishing. The whole of the Eastern Baltic is closed off to cod fishing until midnight 14th of September. As we are currently looking for pirate fishers of cod, we would like to see if this particular trawler is respecting the rules of not fishing for cod at this time. Just remember that they are allowed 3 percent bycatch, which may in fact be cod, but which would not be considered illegal. We would like to know how long they have been fishing for today, how long at sea, how long do they leave their trawl-lines in water each time they lower the nets, and most importantly, what they think about the creation of marine reserves to protect the endangered Eastern Baltic cod stocks. Ok, lets do it, I thought. Captain Derek instructed me on the calling protocol, and I was ready. I had to call the boat's name twice and upon answer, I was to just carry a normal conversation.

Before the conversation with the Polish trawler started, it was over. Within minutes after, I found myself putting on an insulated water suit, a life jacket, work boots, and a head full of questions for the Polish fisherman, who agreed to host us on-board their vessel. An inflatable was lowered into the water, while I along with 3 other activists waited for the signal to board. All of a sudden, the deck was full of movement, with our photographer, Cristian, capturing the action. We were summoned to the inflatable, which was driven by Odin and Po Paul. Holding onto the ropes, and sitting on the side of the watercraft, I bounced up and down as we sped through waves to get to our Polish sailors. Odin, our skilled inflatable driver, was in his element, and I could see pure excitement in his face. Cod only knew, what was waiting for us...

...herring. Four or five tonnes of herring on the boat. Very clean, barely any bycatch - we only saw 3 individual cod victims on-board that ship. The fisherman told us that for the 4-5 tonnes of herring, they throw about 40 kilograms of it back to sea because it is too small and not profitable to keep. We thanked Captain Antoni, and departed the Polish trawler rather happy. Rules were respected, so at least for now the cod was safe.

After jumping back on the inflatable, our action was not over yetÂ… we were en route to yet another trawler. Also Polish, from the same port of Kolobrzeg. This time, we did not make radio contact, but approached alongside the boat. Shouting back and forth, we were informed the captain was not available (was eating breakfast), but he emerged from the bridge looking down at us curiously. "What are you fishing for today?", I shouted. "Herring", he responded. "I do not have the fish you are looking for," he added quickly. "Which fish is that?", I asked. "Cod", he answered calmly. We continued with more questions, but this was another boat which seemed to observe regulations. We thanked the captain for his time and moved on to the next ship which was already positioned for us by crew on-board. To our disappointment, the third ship did not let us approach, and we could not talk to the captain. We gathered that communication between the three boats must have been the cause for such a cold reception. We turned around and headed back to the Arctic Sunrise. For today, "mission cod" was successful. We generated interest and made our presence known to the fisherman. We know they were talking about our visit later, and we know we made an impression.