Hello from Wellington, where the weather has, well, become wet and windy! We're in the middle of doing more 'open boats' at the moment - fair play to everyone who's been braving the elements to visit the Rainbow Warrior. As this phase of our deep sea life campaign rolls to a close, we're leaving Wellington today, en route to Auckland for the 20th anniversary of the sinking of the first Rainbow Warrior. This weblog will be coming to an end - but you can follow the adventures of the Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand via the Greenpeace NZ website. Thanks to everyone's who's been following the weblog over the last few weeks - especially all of you who took the time to post comments. The crew of the Rainbow Warrior have been delighted, excited and amazed by the huge response, which has been a source of inspiration while we've been out at sea.
On Thursday night, New Zealand TV channel TVNZ showed an interesting feature on bottom trawling, on current affairs program 20/20. With interviews from both marine biologist Steve O'Shea and the head of Amaltal Fishing, Andrew Talley, it was pretty exciting stuff, and made for dramatic viewing. The segment showed our protests on the high seas, as well as damning footage of deep sea 'graveyards' - areas devastated by bottom trawling - and our footage of gorgonian coral being dumped off the Waipori.
On one hand, both Greenpeace and Steve O'Shea were shown to point the (fish) finger at the fishing industry for destroying deep sea life through bottom trawling. On other, Andrew Talley was sticking to his (spud)guns, claiming that our statements were "unsubstantiated claptrap".
But the thing is, there is lots of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, such as the coral dumping and the bycatch we collected, as well as other footage shown by 20/20. Mr Talley's response to this was quite simple - he says we're not telling the truth. Which is pretty incredible - how much more truth does he need than footage of massive corals from the ocean floor being hauled off bottom trawlers?
It's fitting that this piece aired just as we arrived in New Zealands Capital. With all this clear evidence on the table and now in peoples lounge rooms, the government will have to act. The future of deep sea life is in their hands.
On Wellington's Taranaki St. earlier, we have a billboard poster connected to the campaign - the above photograph is for your viewing pleasure!
- Carmen & Dave
Comments
The billboard on Taranaki Street: If that doesn't grab attention! Nice job! The web site says this action is winding down, however, I see it as just beginning. You all have opened so many eyes to see the destruction of the seas. For sure, I had NO idea before now. Focus the education toward children, they're our greatest hope.
I know Auckland will be bittersweet, and my thoughts are with all of you who will be there, especially those who were there 20 years ago.
Keep up the good work, and THANK YOU for the education I've received in the past few months!
(pssst... still no email getting through!)
Posted by: Waynesmom at June 29, 2005 05:30 PM
I watched the TVNZ video of the "discussions" regarding the damages done by bottom-trawlers. This Mr Andrew Talley of Amaltal Fishing is really of a bad faith, and he does not acknowledge the mere evidence of video footages done by Greenpeace. Is Mr Talley a sort of negationist ? The NZ authorities must act quickly if fragile bottom sea environments are to be preserved.
