The last time I struggled to get my wellies on early in the morning was in a tent in a muddy field at Glastonbury. I guess that just goes to show the range of out-of-office experiences you get to have as a Greenpeace campaigner!

At about 9pm last night we spotted a pair of trawlers on the radar and decided to keep with them and pay them a visit at first light. I didn't need the unearthly wake up call as I slept fitfully and was already awake when Magali came to rouse us at 5.30am. The mates on watch had monitored the pair via the radar through the night. Their movements seemed a bit haphazard, and it looked like they'd only started fishing properly at 4.30am. We'd all guessed they *couldn't* be French trawlers who normally seem to operate much more slickly.

Donned in my thermals (including two pairs of socks) and a 'woolly bear' (which is kinda like a romper-suit for grown ups, and fleecy inside) I clambered into my boatsuit and wellies, donned gloves, hat, scarf and life jacket and waited for the Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs) to be launched.

Alongside the ship we were treated to some great views of playful dolphins, with some nice formation jumping, emphasizing unnecessarily what we all know already - that where there are trawlers in this part of the Channel there tend to be dolphins too.

Once we got close enough to recognize the ships we saw they were in fact French - a pair of bright orange trawlers called the Thomas Nicolas and the Mary Christo. Frederic, my French counterpart, made radio contact (pictured) and explained why we were there. Again we asked that they stop fishing and leave the area - they didn't. They also seemed to acknowledge on the radio that the fishery did catch dolphins, as if it was just a fact of life we'd have to deal with...

We went back to the ship, thinking it'd be many hours 'til they hauled - but they caught us unaware. By the time we noticed the vessels were coming together and launched a RIB they had already hauled in. They did stop fishing then and steamed away.

I'm sure we'll encounter them another day.

Willie, Campaigner