Just as we felt that time was running out and our hopes were beginning to fade up came a blip on the radar, which we suspected was a bottom trawler. As we drew nearer to the vessel, we called them on the radio, getting no reply we launched the African Queen to find out who it was since it was so foggy. A few moments later we heard Mariajo's ecstatic voice on the radio "It's the Lootus 2!". Everyone on the bridge erupted with applause and shrieks of excitement. This was one of the vessels we wanted to find because it has broken NAFO regulations 7 times in the last 5 years (like using illegal nets and catching species under moratoria). We knew we had to do something quite special with this vessel in order to raise awareness about deep sea destruction. We needed to wake up NAFO and the rest of the world and the Lootus 2 was a perfect example to do this with.

The Esperanza went into action mode and was once again buzzing with anticipation. As we waited for the Lootus 2 to haul in the net I managed to get myself included as part the crew on the safety boat for the action. The call came at about 7'o clock that the trawler had slowed down and was probably hauling so we should prepare to launch. I dashed to the wet room, ready to board the Hurricane but as soon we all got into our boat suits and life jackets another call came through over the speakers, "stand down, the ship is speeding up again and is not hauling". Disappointed, we took everything off and went back to waiting around but it quickly grew dark and the action was delayed until the morning.

The ship hauled her nets at around 11pm and took off at a speed of over 9 knots, which it maintained for 7 hours during the night. It slowly slipped away from us during my nightwatch and by 5am it was over 7 miles away. At 6am, the bridge started to come alive with many people watching the radar and pondering what to do about the situation. Bunny, our campaign coordinator, asked me to wake up the the crew who would be involved and at 7:30am I did another wake up call, this time for everyone. We launched the Queen which went over to the Lootus 2 and waited there, feeding information back the Esperanza about what was happening. By 10am the trawler had been fishing for 5 hours and we expected she would haul before lunch time so once again we were on standby.

We launched the Hurricane and another inflatable over the side and stayed in the water, ready to go to the trawler as soon as she slowed down to haul. She had been fishing since 5am and we traveled alongside the Esperanza, behind the trawler for what seemed like hours, wondering when the fishing would stop but it went on and on! What were they doing? Were they too scared to pull their nets up in front of us (trawls don't usually last more than 8-9 hours)? I sat in the Hurricane bobbing around on the ocean, along with Mike and Rosso and after a while Penny passed us coffee in flasks through a porthole in the Espy (so nice!). I had time to think a lot about the fragile, living structures on the sea floor right beneath us, which were being demolished the entire time this vessel was fishing... dragging the net through the myriad of life in the deep... and about how many other creatures were also being swallowed up by this enormous death trap. It made me sad and angry and I felt i
ncredibly eager to go over to this deep sea destroyer and do something to try and stop it.

Eventually we had to come on board the Espy again since we didn't want to be traveling in the water for too long. I desperately needed the toilet so I was very glad about the pit stop. Mike had been telling me what I needed to do in order to pee over the side of the Hurricane and I really didn't fancy that option, especially right alongside the Esperanza with over 30 crew on board! I ended up falling asleep in my boat suit on the helideck while I put my camera on charge and waited for the call to go again. Staying awake since the wee hours of the morning was proving difficult.

After we hit 5 o'clock it became obvious to everyone that we needed a plan B since it seemed like they were going to keep trawling and keep their nets down for as long as we were around. We also had to start heading back to Halifax as soon as possible (the Espy is on a tight schedule). So we decided to get in the way of the trawler itself by putting protest swimmers in the water right in front of the bow of the Lootus 2. Gabor and Flo bravely volunteered for this and suited up. I helped load a banner into the Hurricane, which the swimmers would carry and we set off into the fog towards the trawler.

Well now, I've already written too much and my intention was to wake everyone up, not put anyone to sleep, so the rest will have to come later along with loads more pictures!

-Lisa.

Give governments your own wake up call and tell them to stop bottom trawling in the high seas before it's too late

Image captions

Photo 1: Maite, Remon and Stephan stay alongside the Esperanza ready to take action against the Lootus 2 © Greenpeace