The Canadian Fisheries Minister Goeff Regan held a press conference later in the day and in response to our campaign, said that Canada is against a moratorium because he thinks we need more science to first identify the most sensitive areas and then move to protect them.

But the problem is that not even Mr Regan could say where these sensitive areas in the high seas off Canada are, and this is why scientists are saying we need a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling as the first step - so that these areas are not destroyed before scientists can get around to identifying them, and giving them the protection they need.

I don't understand why politicians refuse to acknowledge the continuing destruction on the high seas while hiding behind the "science" smoke screen. This isn't the way we should protect our future and our chief engineer hit the nail on the head during lunch today when he said "right now we need more common sense rather than more science". Hopefully, we're going to change that at the UN meeting.

After lunch yesterday Mike told us that a "pipe carrier" was going to perform a sacred ceremony and bless the ship. I thought this seemed like a great thing to go and watch but Mike is always making up ridiculous things like this for his own amusement. He seems to take great pleasure is exploiting people's gullibility, and I am a usual target for this since I'm new. When he said there would be a sacred fire in the barbecue I burst out laughing, certain that I had been the victim of another trick. However, it was absolutely true and I had just laughed right in front of the guy who was going to do the blessing with the barbecue. Oh well, I blame Mike for that.

Some of the crew gathered on the heli-deck in a circle around the barbecue while Bill, who is a matis elder of the Cree ancestry in Nova Scotia, performed a very spiritual ceremony for us. He burnt some sage in a abalone shell and spread the smoke around us with a feather while we all took it in turns to place tobacco into the fire. Sage and tobacco are sacred herbs according to the Cree. He wished us success with our campaign and encouraged us to say thank you to the spirit, which he said unites us all with the rest of mother earth. In his language you say "Wa la lin" to give thanks and so we uttered those words as each of us travelled around the circle giving hugs to everyone else.

It was a very special event, which I was glad to be a part of, but it led me to think about what lies ahead for the creatures of the deep. Tears began to well up in my eyes while images of deep sea destruction rushed through my head and I knew that no matter how hard I want the destruction to end, it wont until we have convinced people who have the power to make the change (the UN). I believe we need more than sacred fires to achieve that and I know the next two weeks will be a great challenge for this campaign but we are on our way and we have pretty much everything we need. One thing that might be missing though, is your voice. Have you spoken out yet against deep sea destruction? If not - click here to give high seas bottom trawling the (fish) finger.

Wa la lin.

-Lisa.