We are now in Portland, Dorset - which means the end of our time at sea searching for dolphins and trawlers. It's always with a bit of sadness that I approach the end of these trips. The question in my mind late at night is whether we've done enough to save the dolphins out here. And I guess the answer to that is we've done all that we can and then some - with late night and early morning Rigid Inflatable Boats out to observe, document and take action.

And when that is combined with hundreds of people calling, writing and sending faxes to the commission we have to feel proud that we are creating the pressure for change. It is up to the commissioner to now take the action that ensures we can all see live dolphins in the Channel in future - rather than the dead animals washing ashore on our beaches.

Take a look back over our ship tour by viewing the images page.

A huge thanks from everyone on board the ship to those that have followed us through the website and sent comments, questions, ideas and messages of support to us. It makes a big difference on those difficult days to know that there are so many more people on land watching what is happening out here in the Channel.

And if you haven't done so already, please send an online fax to the EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg, asking him to ban the sea bass pair trawl fishery. You can also help spread the word about our campaign by sending our new e-card to all your friends.

Thanks from everyone on board the Esperanza for all your support - and please keep checking our website for more news on the campaign from land...

Sarah, Campaigner

My name is Kurt Jackson and I'm an artist based in Cornwall - landscape and seascape. I paint the environment and the people that live and work in it and try to cover cultural issues, environmental issues, political ideals and the simple ideals of beauty...

I have followed the work of lots of different environmental campaigns and organisations and became involved with fundraising for Greenpeace through my work as the artist in residence at the annual Glastonbury festival. In the past I have auctioned my paintings through the event organiser Mike Eavis. Every exhibition I hold at private and public galleries all over the world raises the awareness of environmental campaigns and organisations.

As I live near the sea and have witnessed numerous dead dolphins on the beaches of Cornwall I have always had the desire to get involved in the issue. In the past I have painted the dead dolphins and at one time witnessed six washed up on a beach. Pair trawling for sea bass is a major factor in this problem and so when I was offered the chance to paint in situ on the MV Esperanza campaigning against pair trawling in the English Channel, I jumped at it.

I had vague ideas for the composition and subject and as I couldn't paint in the Rigid Inflatable Boats as they are too bouncy, I took up residence on 'Monkey Island' which is actually on the roof of the bridge. While I was there I painted a huge sea swell and was feeling a bit icky but it was a phenomenal seascape with shafts of light hitting the water.

I've also been able to get onboard an inflatable to sketch an action to stop two pairs of French trawlers from fishing.

The experience was extraordinary and I managed to do a few marks on paper. Although it was very wet out there it was totally worthwhile to produce images that can hopefully be used to raise awareness on this issue.

Kurt Jackson, Artist in residence

While the Esperanza is in the English Channel - our most famous ship, the Rainbow Warrior is currently doing a tour around Korea. The focus of campaigning there is whales - and particularly the critically endangered population of gray whales in the western Pacific, known as 'Korean gray whales'.

I'll hold my hand up and admit that until recently I didn't know too much about gray whales. In some ways they're not the most exciting-looking cetaceans but they are utterly fascinating if you care to find out a little about them. They are coastal whales - and make long migrations along the shore between feeding grounds and breeding areas.

They are unique among the big whales in being bottom feeders - sifting through sand to eat small crustaceans on the sea floor. They are also unique in being the only large whales to have populations that are entirely extinct. Nowadays you only get gray whales in the Pacific (hence the americanised spelling of 'gray') but they used to live in the Atlantic too. Gray whale bones have been found off the shores of Devon and Cornwall - just where the Esperanza has been for the past few weeks.

The team onboard the Rainbow Warrior have joined forces with KFEM, a Korean environmental organisation, and will be monitoring cetacean life during the tour. The Korean gray whales are in real trouble. The remaining population is believed to be about only 100 individuals, and it's thought there are only 20 or so breeding females. And it's feared that these whales may be at threat from bycatch too. Minke whales are certainly bycatch victims in that area, and the loss of even a few gray whales in fishing nets would be devastating to the remaining population.

Our team on the Rainbow Warrior will be meeting the people in Korea, and trying to get their support for the protection of ocean life and the Korean gray whale, specifically in campaigning for a marine reserve to protect the species. Gray whales, like other cetaceans, face many threats from humanity - from direct threats like hunting and entanglement in fishing nets to threats from toxic and noise pollution, oil and gas developments, dredging, and food depletion. We believe marine reserves are an essential solution to protecting the biodiversity in our oceans.

You can keep up with the news and weblogs from the crew onboard the Rainbow Warrior (in English or Korean!) and support them as they try to make sure that the Korean gray whale lives on and doesn't become just a collection of fossils like it's north Atlantic cousin.

Willie, Campaigner

I'm one of the volunteer activists onboard the Esperanza and I have been given the job of wearing a helmet-mounted video camera during actions.

I used a helmet cam last year, which was a cobbled together arrangement to try the idea out. People seemed pleased with the results so our resident videographer Gavin made a more robust waterproof version. It has been in regular use over the last few weeks.

At first it was strange to wear - my head felt lopsided and I had a belt mounted recorder sticking into the small of my back. But it wasn't long before I got used to it and I hardly notice it now.

On its first trip out everybody was aware that they were being filmed and some played up to the camera, others stayed away. Now everybody seems to have forgotten about it and has started acting naturally. It's become part of the kit that I wear in the inflatable boats, along with my dry suit and life jacket.

It is interesting watching the video after the action. You notice all sorts of things that you weren't aware of at the time and it adds a new dimension to the documentation. I think most people regard it as a useful new piece of equipment.

Huw, Volunteer

Hello - it's Francois, the French campaigner onboard the Esperanza.

As today is quiet - we've found no trawlers so far - I thought I could write a little update on the French side of the campaign. This year we've had very good interest from the media and the public following the first actions we did on the French fleet. We also had a successful open boat in Brest on 12 and 13 March - there were around 200 people on the quayside when we sailed back to the fishing grounds.

The fishing industry represents a strong lobby in France, and Greenpeace was not particularly popular among fishermen after the drift net campaign we set and won several years ago.

This time part of them agree with us - especially recreational fishermen and liners, who consider pair trawlers as a threat to sea bass resources because they essentially trawl in spawning areas and periods. It means they mostly catch tons of young reproducers sold lately around 5 or 6 euros/kg - whereas other selective fisheries can reach the price of 15 euros/kg, for they can offer a much better quality on the markets.

So within the issue of cetacean bycatch there is also a clear link with overfishing versus sustainable fisheries.

Greenpeace demands a ban on sea bass pair trawling in the Channel from both the French and UK governments, who must respect the precautionary principle under the EU Habitats Directive to preserve dolphins and other protected species against destructive practices, and to promote selective fisheries.

Francois, Campaigner

A quiet day today. We're out scanning the seas for pair trawlers, but so far nothing on the radar.

So I thought I'd write a blog about another aspect of the pair trawl sea bass fishery - aside from the high numbers of dolphins being killed in their nets - that I've learned about since I've been onboard and chatting with the crew and oceans campaigners.

I hadn't realised until I came out here that these trawlers are in the Channel at this time of year because it is the sea bass spawning, or breeding, season.

Responsible fishermen, who want to be able to fish in the long term, avoid fishing in spawning grounds during the breeding season. This is because if you fish in this way you will catch pregnant fish and small immature fish, who if left to grow will themselves reproduce and replenish stocks. So they know they'd be shooting themselves in the foot.

Francois, the French oceans campaigner onboard, tells me that some French fishermen are supporting the campaign to ban sea bass pair trawlers for this very reason. For instance, local line fishermen from North Finistere have added their voice to those calling for tighter controls on sea bass fisheries. Recently they even undertook a protest against the pair trawlers Mary Christo and Thomas-Nicholas when they came into the port of Roscoff to unload six tonnes of sea bass.

And certainly when we've gone into port during this trip we've had a lot of support from the local boating and fishing communities. One moment that sticks in my mind is a harbour master giving us a friendly wave and a 'you take care of yourselves - keep up the good work!' as we left the dock.

So don't forget - if you love eating seabass, only buy it if it's guaranteed not to come from pair trawlers. Otherwise you're not only subsidising a fishery that kills huge numbers of dolphins - but longer term you're risking not being able to buy your favourite fish supper.

Louise, Press officer

In response to our depositing dead dolphins on Defra's doorstep (yes, I know there's a lot of Ds in there) Ben Bradshaw, the Minister for Nature Conservation and Fisheries, seemed to get a bit annoyed. So annoyed in fact that he hot-footed it over to the nearest TV studio to denounce it as a 'silly stunt'. He announced the latest strandings figures which he said showed a decrease in dolphins washing up on beaches - and tried to claim this as a government success.

I thought I might respond to this - I'm sure at least someone in Defra must be a keen weblog-reader. Let's be clear - Greenpeace is resorting to taking action because governments (including the UK) aren't doing enough.

We are taking action here in the UK - where years of damning evidence of the death toll wrought by the bass pair trawl fishery have meant nothing. We are taking action in France, as well as at the French Embassy in London. We are also taking action in the Channel (where the dolphins are getting killed) against UK and French vessels. And we're lobbying the EU Commissioner. If the governments responsible had done what they should have done by now and banned this fishery we wouldn't have to be doing this.

No one involved in recovering, and delivering those dolphins saw it as a silly stunt. For some it was the most heart-wrenching thing they'd ever done - but they volunteered to take part because they know that we need to hold our politicians accountable.

For me, even though I've seen a fair few of these corpses now, it was very difficult too. Those three dolphins represented how bycatch cuts straight across the populations - indiscrimately killing healthy animals. That the dolphins looked so alive in death made it an upsetting and nauseating experience.

Sights as grisly and gruesome as this are encountered regularly by ordinary members of the public walking on beaches around our coasts. EU governments have a duty to protect these species - they aren't doing this.

If you want a prime example of a 'silly stunt' and government spin - Ben Bradshaw announced a ban on pair trawling in an area where practically none of it happens, effectively pushing the problem further out to sea, in the knowledge that the further out to sea a dolphin is killed, the less chance there is of it ever reaching the shore.

Willie, Campaigner

I am in the action boat. As we fight the swell with biting, salty wind stinging our eyes, I glance around at the other people on my boat; colleagues, friends, people from different countries, different religions and cultures, here united. Despite the cold I feel warm inside.

We arrive at the scene and assess the situation. A French pair of trawlers with their nets in the water. Radio contact achieves nothing, they will not stop. We hear a crackly warning on the radio from the Esperanza that has seen two other French boats heading in our direction fast – to do what? We don't know. The crew scan the distant waves around us to find them. We need to be wary. At that moment, I think 'good, if they’re out here trying to run us down at least they’re not fishing'. Perhaps a strange thought, but on this campaign I have seen more dead dolphins than anyone should see in a whole lifetime.

Our first attempt is to remove one of the big fishing buoys which help keep the net in position. They respond by speeding up considerably, dragging the buoys faster and sinking them. With the speed and two metre swell, the buoys are hitting the surface of the water for a second then plunging down beyond reach.

My crew mate and I take walls of water in the face as we lean over the side - other crew hold our legs to keep us from going over. Tomorrow I will ache, but right now there is no pain, only focus and determination. We need perhaps ten seconds with the buoy to remove it. Again and again we get only two. We pull back and rethink - 'plan B'...

By this time the two other French boats have arrived and are coming in fast and close. We now need to be very careful and be aware of their positions. Plan B involves getting close to the fishing boats - so on go our climber's helmets to protect our heads. A good job too. The next moment I hear the impact of a metal shackle hitting somewhere in the boat. I drop to my knees and do a quick scan - luckily everyone's okay.

The rest of the operation goes smoothly. We have managed to attach a drogue (a large circular cloth like an underwater parachute) which slows them right down. We drop back, observing, hoping it is enough to stop them fishing. They then haul in their nets at speed and the four of them take off.

Penny, Volunteer

We've just delivered three dead dolphins to the UK ministry responsible for their deaths.

We found these three dolphins at sea - all bearing the telltale marks of death by fishing net. Ben Bradshaw is the Nature Conservation and Fisheries Minister at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). That makes him the minister responsible for protecting dolphins and porpoises (as he should under the EU Habitats Directive) as well as the minister in charge of the single biggest threat to dolphins and porpoises - fisheries.

He and his department have tried to side-step the issue of dolphin bycatch for too long, tinkering at the problem by pushing the fishery further offshore, and promising to review the data sooner than planned. But they have already damning evidence that one fishery - pair trawling for bass in the Channel - kills unacceptably high numbers of dolphins every year. There are real concerns that dolphin populations could be seriously affected. Yet they let it continue.

Pair trawling for bass should be banned immediately - and the other fisheries which kill dolphins and porpoises should be identified and tackled too.

At 9am this morning our volunteers laid out the three corpses on Defra's doorstep. Three dolphins, one adult male, one adult female and a juvenile - two of them with their stomachs hacked open by fishermen in a desperate attempt to make the evidence sink without trace.

Meanwhile, our colleagues at sea on the Esperanza are simultaneously doing their best to stop a pair of French sea bass trawlers from fishing, by trying to remove buoys from the nets. I've just spoken to the ship and they’re still with the trawlers and will do what they can to stop them fishing.

Governments in the UK, France and the rest of the EU are failing to tackle the problem of bycatch - even when they have plenty of evidence - so it's up to us to try and do something about it.

That is why we are trying to stop destructive fishing at sea, and have today dumped three dead dolphins on Defra's doorstep. Maybe by having to step over the evidence, they'll stop side-stepping the issue...

Willie, Campaigner

Hi - I'm Chris, volunteer. Now I'm a relative new comer to the world of knots. I've had two years of learning knots for climbing. But now I'm on the Esperanza I'm getting into new realms: the four dimensions of the bowline (for starters), not to mention the double fisherman's. There is the left, the right, the forward and the backward and then you get into the fancy worlds of the double, on the bite and more.

Let me explain my new find. A rope is thrown to you, the other end is attached to say a boat. Catching it in your left hand you have to tie a loop that will hold this craft and it all depends on you. Tie that bowline. Take the working end then place it on top, twist making the loop, end to the outside, round the back and through the loop. Et voila. You have your knot!

It's a lot easier written than done, particularly as I'm left handed. It's called a bird's nest. I must practice! The left hand works a treat, the eyes are closed and I've got movement.

Initially the story my tutors relate to explain the motion needed - of the rabbit in the hole coming up, around some trees, then down the hole - but it fogs the old grey matter. So I'm advised this is to be put aside and to think instead about the granny knot - push, flipping the loop round the back and through the loop. Simplicity. Again the other side, only pull, and hey presto there you have it. It's a bowline!

Now a paradigm shift. The four major dimensions according to bowline. No rabbits and holes, no trees and running back down. Left, right, forward and back. Oh look the sun has just come out from behind the clouds...

Chris, Volunteer

When we started talking about the first dolphin bycatch campaign last year it was decided very quickly that we needed plenty of background images of wild dolphins - specifically common dolphins in European waters. While we regularly see dolphins bowriding or surfing alongside the ship and can easily photograph and film that activity it seemed obvious to me as a diver that the place to see dolphins is where they spend most of their time - underwater.

For last year's campaign I hired underwater housing for one of my very high resolution three chip camera heads thinking it would be a relatively simple task to hang it over the side of the ship on a pole and film the dolphins. In reality after five weeks of building ever more elaborate camera mounts we came up with a system that was starting to give the type of images I wanted just as the campaign came to an end. This was not an easy game to play...

So with the benefit of hindsight, this year's camera system was designed well in advance and was planned to be able to take digital stills as well as video. Consequently the housing we have this year is four times the size of the last one to enable me to put a 14 million pixel digital SLR camera into it.

The housing is custom built out of aluminium with a 2.5cm thick plexiglas port on the front and is depth rated to 200 metres. In this situation we only use the housing at two metres depth but with such a big housing the drag and pressure caused by the ship moving through the water at 10 knots is probably exerting several tons of force on both the housing and its mounting system - so overkill is the order of the day.

The mounting system is made from 10cm diameter steel tubing which in turn is supported by steel cables and welded to the deck of the ship. The whole housing can be rotated through 360 degrees remotely from the deck and a 12mm thick multicore umbilical cable sends power to the cameras and pictures back to monitors and recorders on the deck (pictured).

So far this year we've had the usual round of teething troubles but succeeded in getting some good underwater video. Take a look at this underwater dolphin video clip.

If you're using a dial up internet connection, view this version of the video clip.

The dolphins seem to like the eddys produced around the housing at speed and happily play around it giving us a fantastic view of their underwater acrobatics.

We've just switched the system over to the stills camera system and now just await the elusive combination of clear water and playful dolphins... Watch this space.

Gavin, Videographer

On Tuesday we retrieved three dead common dolphins from an area where the French pair trawl fleet had earlier been operating. There were two juvenile male dolphins and one female - all had their bellies slit open and viscera hanging out.

Upon examination we found water pouring from their blowholes, which is indicative of drowning. The tips of their beaks were red raw, with total skin loss in some areas; there were sliced lips, deep grooves in the beak and each had missing or broken teeth. There were many fresh cuts and abrasions over prominent regions and other areas of the body. Lacerated flukes, flippers and dorsal fins are further evidence that these dolphins had been entangled in fishing gear.

The highest temperature among the three was 26ºC - well above the ambient sea water temperature recorded at the time. The temperatures we recorded may well have been higher had the dolphins not been cut open because sea water would have entered their body cavity and sped up the cooling process. I would estimate, based on the their body temperatures, the time of death would have been a matter of hours prior to our finding them.

Furthermore based on the proximity of their bodies to one another and the similarities of the cuts in their bellies it is reasonable to suggest that they were killed in the same haul.

The dolphins have now been stored in a freezer and are awaiting future post mortem investigations on land.

Marijke, WDCS scientist

'Largest indigenous seabird of North Atlantic; long neck and wedge-shaped tail impart distinctive jizz.'

Whatever 'jizz' is?!

I just looked up gannets in the book - Seabirds of the World - as I know very little about birds and bird watching, and now I have learned a new word. Unfortunately I can't look it up as the only decent dictionary onboard always seems to disappear from the library into peoples' cabins (which makes for heated moments in scrabble games when contentious words go to a majority vote of acceptability).

But anyway, my blog is about gannets, not scrabble. As I said, I'm not a natural twitcher, but I do love gannets. During the course of this campaign and others, I have spent many hours sat in inflatables; by day and by night, in rough seas and in smooth, in fair weather and foul, with flasks of hot chocolate and without, and always invariably my mood is lifted whenever the gannets come.

There is something so elegant about them; the way they glide, sometimes singly, sometimes in formation, low over the water. Or the slow beat of their long, slender wings when they do try to gain altitude. Fulmars are pretty cool too with their unfeasibly close to the surface of the water type glide. But fulmars are short and stubby, and a bit comedic with their stiff-winged flap. And they don't have the bright yellow head and the heavily made up eyes of the gannet that makes them so distinctive. No jizz, maybe?

But the thing that really makes the gannet so supremo over boring gulls and all the rest, is its incredible wing dislocating diving antics. This is really an incredible sight to witness close-up, as is often the case when we are following trawlers that are hauling their nets, full with caught fish. They kind of swoop in amongst the gulls, their eyes alert to the underwater signs of fish and food, and then they stall, mid-air, by splaying their tail feathers and using their wings as brakes.

And then the most amazing thing. They dive head first into the water with incredible speed, dislocating their wings in order to become more streamlined and break the surface of the sea with barely a splash. When you are in the middle of a group that is feeding like this, it's like yellow, black and white missiles hitting the water all around you.

The WDCS scientist onboard told me that they end up going blind due to the force of hitting the water with their eyes open, which seems to me a cruel twist by mother nature.

Still, jizz is a good scrabble word - if I can get it past the other players!

Kate, Photographer

On the top deck of the Esperanza we have a large freezer storage facility. At present it holds four dead common dolphins, all of which bear the telltale signs of being killed in fishing nets. The three dolphins that we found on Tuesday with their bellies slit open are in body bags. The fourth - the one that we found on Thursday in a bad state of decay - is in a stretcher style sling. They all lie on the freezer racks frozen to –10c.

It has the feeling of a mortuary when you walk in. The freezer room is large, like a big container. It was craned on to the deck for this campaign and will be taken off later.

The two previous occupants of the freezer were delivered to the French Embassy in London and then picked up by the Natural History Museum before being taken to the Institute of Zoology in London.

The dolphins we find on this tour will end up at the Institute of Zoology for an official post mortem. This is where many of the dolphins and porpoises found dead on UK beaches end up. The scientists' findings about the dolphins and their cause of death then feed into national statistics on dolphin strandings held by the Natural History Museum.

To stop this senseless slaughter please send an online fax to the EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg, asking him to ban pair trawling for bass.

David, Comms logistics

6am Saturday and again I am on the bridge. Over night our search continued and we have trawlers on the radar again. The green smudges with twin trails are the telltale signs we look for on the radar. Usually the radar is the first sign and then lights or silhouettes appear on the horizon as we get closer. But the fog that rolled in yesterday has stuck with us and from the bridge it's only possible to see about 50 metres in to the distance.

Other than that the weather conditions are perfect. The rolling swell from the other day has stopped and the wind is calm. Both things mean the fog is probably here to stay.

Throughout the night the mate and watchkeeper have tracked the position of the trawlers. When I arrive on the bridge in early morning there is a tangle of information in the note book. We note hourly positions of the trawlers and when we see the two smudges on the radar merge and change speed we know that they are hauling and refitting their net.

All of this is noted down and we are building an extensive picture of the fishing effort in this area.

A few days ago we found the mutilated bodies of three dolphins - fishermen trying to hide the evidence at sea. Today it seems the weather is colluding against us to hide the evidence too. The morning hauls are all done over the next couple of hours. I can't help but wonder how many bodies will drift away in the morning fog never to be seen again.

Sarah, Campaigner

We spotted yet another dead dolphin yesterday at around 2.30pm - 30 miles south east of the Lizard, Cornwall. We quickly scrambled an inflatable and Kate and I took off to document its pick up and delivery to the ship.

Although the sea was calm the swell of the waves made it difficult for the inflatable crew to grab the dead dolphin. We circled it many times until we managed to attach a canvas belt around its tail fin. Up close the dolphin was not a pretty sight and showed signs of decay and bite marks, from birds I expect. The smell of decay was extremely strong.

Once the dolphin was safely attached to the inflatabe we slowly travelled back to the Esperanza and the boat crew craned the dolphin on to the deck. The dolphin is male and 2.2 metres in length.

This is the sixth dolphin we have managed to get onboard and we've seen two more that we were unable to pick up because they were in the middle of a busy shipping lane...

David, Comms logistics

We've been at anchor overnight seeking shelter from the force 8 storms in the Channel. Force 8 means that the wind is strong and our ship will roll and pitch in the swell that picks up.

It makes it impossible to launch the inflatable boats. Over the last few weeks most of the wind has been coming from the north but the last few days it has been picking up from the south west. Most people would look at that and just think 'wind' but for us out here we know what the south west winds mean - dolphins will be washing up on the beaches. With northerly winds the bodies are blown out to sea and lost. But over the next few days it is likely that more will now wash ashore.

Already we have seen a total of seven dead dolphins floating in the water. On Tuesday when we found the three mutilated bodies everyone was wondering just how many more out there we missed. We can only spot them up to 100 metres from the ship and it is even harder from the inflatable. You almost have to be on top of them to see them from the water. Dead dolphins that we missed may well be out on the beaches today.

The dead dolphins that we have found at sea and the hundreds that wash ashore are the grisly evidence of the deaths that are happening every day through the winter season out here in the Channel.

Imagine how people feel when they are taking their children or dogs for a walk down the beach and they stumble across one of these bodies. Certainly not what most people think of when they say they want to see dolphins! So today the team on land has served a reminder to the people who can make a difference by delivering them the evidence - dead dolphin bodies (pictured).

We all know action needs to be taken to stop these deaths - all we need is the politicians to do it!

Sarah, Campaigner

My role during this second year of our work on cetacean bycatch is to deliver our campaign to the politicians back on land. There's lots happening at sea – but it's easy for politicians to feel distant from the problem.

That's why this morning we delivered two of the dead common dolphins recovered by the team on the Esperanza to the French Embassy in London. The dolphins were delivered in a special refrigerated vehicle and placed on the steps of the embassy right in the middle of Knightsbridge. A lot of our work on this campaign has focused on the UK government, but we should not forget that the French sea bass pair trawling fleet is much larger than the UK's and therefore responsible for more dolphin deaths. Today we gave the French government a loud wake-up call – ban pair trawling for sea bass!

At 8.45am our team of active supporters swung into action to lift the two dead dolphins out of the delivery vehicle and put them into place on the front entrance to the embassy, right beneath the enormous tricolour hanging on the buildings façade.

View a slideshow of our dolphin delivery.

It was then my role to hand in a letter to the embassy addressed to the French Fisheries Minister, asking him to ban this fishery in order to protect cetaceans. We've handed the dolphins over to the French government – the problem of bycatch is theirs to clean up.

This is really exciting campaigning. Our unique ability to work at sea means that we can bring the real evidence of the harm done by destructive fishing direct to politicians. This makes the problem their own. It’s also really effective international campaigning – our action today helps the oceans campaigners at Greenpeace France, who are also working on this issue, to really increase the pressure on their government. At long last this issue is starting to make the public and political agenda on both sides of the Channel.

The problem of cetacean bycatch in the sea bass pair trawl fishery is not going to be resolved until this type of fishing is banned. The politicians with the power to act can stop the killing, but until they act we'll be there to remind them again and again of the destruction taking place in the English Channel.

Olly, Campaigner

Hi - it's Huw and Penny here - Greenpeace volunteers onboard the MV Esperanza. We took part in yesterday's action and the picking up of the three dead dolphins.

Yesterday morning we set off to document a haul from two pair trawlers. Francois, the French campaigner onboard, contacted the boats over the radio and told them that we were campaigning against the bycatch of dolphins in their nets and the depletion of common dolphins in the area. He asked them to cease their activity and also said that we were prepared to take non-violent direct action to preserve the dolphins - which are a protected species under the 1992 EU Habitat Directive.

The trawlerman replied that he didn't see any dolphins in his net, so it wasn't relevant to him.

The trawler just carried on and the crew began setting its net. The net was floating on the surface when we approached it in our inflatable boat and removed one of the large floating buoys (to be returned to the fisherman at a later date). As a result, they hauled their net and stopped fishing.

There were dolphins all around as they were setting the nets - so it was a big relief that we had managed to stop them. We began following another trawler when we got the call from the Esperanza that a dead dolphin had been spotted near the ship. It was quite cold and wet at the time and the route back to the ship was against the sea, so we took a lot of spray and water. But we all wear dry suits and were warm as toast under our outer skin.

The first dead dolphin was only a juvenile. It was very difficult to pick up with the swell of the sea, and the waves were breaking over our inflatable boat.

It is difficult but it's something we are sadly getting used to. We lassoed the tail and it was then craned onto the Esperanza when we came along side. We have seen a lot of dead dolphins during this campaign but this was more shocking than before because their bellies were slit wide open and their innards hanging out. We had heard that the fishermen cut them open to sink them but we hadn't seen it like this till now. These dolphins look wrong dead like this...

Huw - 'When you are touching and dealing with them you have to go into a very pragmatic methodical mind set to get through it and it is only when I step back from it that it hurts. We had to weigh the three dead dolphins and put them in body bags.'

Penny - 'It is by far the hardest thing I have ever done for Greenpeace. They were still really warm and their skin silky and smooth - not like a fish at all. It felt like a warm wet suit on a diver. Both Huw and I think that the dolphins may have still been alive when they were taken out of the nets and cut open before being thrown over board.'

View a slideshow of the action and dolphin discovery.

Huw and Penny - Volunteers

Just as a journalist arrived in the helicopter this morning, we found three dead dolphins with their stomachs cut wide open floating dead in the sea very close to the ship.

The crew made the grim discovery when returning to the Esperanza after stopping the two French trawlers Columbine and L'Arlequin from pair trawling for sea bass - about 40 miles south of Plymouth. The boats, along with five other pairs of trawlers, were fishing in the same area the dolphins were found earlier this morning.

Take a look at a slideshow of the action and dolphin discovery.

I imagine the reason the bellies of the dolphins were cut was to try and make them sink and so hide the shame of the slaughter. View our bycatch animation to find out more.

Previously I have filmed the Dall's porpoise hunts in Japan and this morning brought back many hard depressing memories of that event. It is difficult to take in that this sort of killing happens so close to the beaches of the UK.

Please send an online fax to the EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg, asking him to ban pair trawling for bass.

The helicopter has now left as we have had a shipping forecast that bad weather is coming.

David, Comms logistics

We're back at sea and the new team of people that joined in Brest are getting used to life onboard. Up early today, we're all enthusiastic about the next leg of the tour and continuing our work to stop pair trawlers from killing common dolphins in the Channel. But who are the new kids in the block?

I have replaced Greggy as the second cameraman, photographer and editor on board. I am also taking over from the "weblog king" Willie.

The rest of the new crew are:

Louise, a press officer from the UK office who replaces Niall. She has sailed twice before on the MV Esperanza - during the campaign to create marine reserves in the North Sea last year, and also when the Esperanza tracked a shipment of weapons grade plutonium from the US to France in October last year.

Then there is Stan who is the new logistics chap replacing Frank. Stan has been around Greenpeace for many years covering numerous campaigns and has sailed on all the Greenpeace ships.

Chris and Penny are volunteer activists from the UK who will be joining the ship's crew to help stop pair trawlers.

We also have a new cook in the galley! Finnish born Marko has joined us to create wonderful culinary delights twice a day. He is a real character who has sailed many times onboard. This trip he has an assistant cook, Natalie, who is French and is finding it all very new - this is her first time at sea with Greenpeace.

The engine room crew don't miss out either with Slava from Russia and Manus joining.

Hopefully all the new crew will write personal biogs of themselves in the coming days and we'll add them to the Meet the team page.

The sea is so calm today (pictured) and we are even graced with sunshine! Dolphins have been riding alongside us for the last hour and we have just come across a number of pair trawlers. We will certainly be launching boats shortly to identify them...

David, Comms logistics

After a weekend of open days in Brest harbour we're now back at sea. Our ship's open days had a fantastic response from the people of Brest - the public were very pleased to see the MV Esperanza in their home town.

I was particularly happy that the local line fishermen came onboard to show their support for the campaign - they fish using rod and line, so are sympathetic to our campaign to stop destructive pair trawling.

The crowds were shown around by crew members who took them on a complete guided tour of the ship - from the bridge at the top to the lower aft deck. Many visitors just wanted to wander around the decks looking at the Rigid Inflatable Boats and enjoyed climbing the many stairs between the decks.

Also, in the helicopter hanger on the aft deck, a video of the previous weeks actions was shown.

During the two days we also managed to get the campaign message out across the rest of France - thanks to the French TV crews and press who came along to visit the ship. The media were also shown the two dead dolphins kept in the cold store freezer on deck. This was obviously shocking to many who viewed them as they had never seen such beautiful creatures close up - either alive or dead.

The total number of visitors wasn't logged but we do know that over 70 people signed up as new members of Greenpeace and that over 200 people watched us depart - all waving frantically on the quay side as we slipped our moorings and glided off on an almost flat, calm sea.

The weekend was a boost for all onboard, including the new crew members (more on them later). It also shows the support that the campaign is getting in France, as we sail out to continue our work of protecting the dolphin...

Francois, Campaigner

Sundays are the only remnant of the 'normal' working week on board. The crew have their day off, well, with the caveat that nothing goes wrong. However, needs must and some things can't relent; the mates continue their watches, steering the boat; the engineers are often called into action when there's an emergency; the RO or radio operator, Colin, seems to be at constant beckoning; and we are always watching the sea - willing dark backs out of the waves.

That's the great thing about boats, there's always some sort of tinkering to be done. Between the radio room and the various workshops and engines there's a hum of activity. The RO, particularly, has a knack for getting things to work. It's not a matter of if it can be done, but how. I see a tremendous satisfaction to be had in whatever route he takes. All this industrial-ness is infectious. For instance, one of the photographers turned her hand to the wood bench, producing a cup holder of which any carpenter'd be proud. I think this adaptability is both learnt from experience on board and forced upon you when all the resources you have are what you can see.

So far I've also had varied jobs, from soldering to carpentry and quick IT solutions to window-washing. Because they are so absorbing, these little jobs take on a precedence in the mind above that which they probably should!

Simon, WDCS scientist

Bycatch is the 'incidental capture' of a non-target species in a fishery. Most often the 'bycatch' is dead, if not it usually has injuries that will prove fatal if it makes it back into the water.

The definition sounds innocent enough until you consider the scale of this 'incidental capture'. In the English Channel, Bay of Biscay and Celtic Sea it is believed that 10,000 dolphins and porpoises are killed in fishing nets every year. Globally the number of whales, dolphins and porpoises meeting this fate is conservatively estimated at 300,000 every year.

But other marine species are at risk too: seal lions and fur seals, turtles and seabirds are killed in their thousands. Shark bycatch (pictured) numbers in the millions every year - many of which have their fins hacked off before they are thrown overboard dead or dying.

Then there are the less charismatic (to most people) animals - namely coral, sponges, and other bottom-living invertebrates like starfish and sea urchins. These are the unwitting victims in bottom trawling fisheries, which scrape the seafloor and destroy not only species, but also entire ecosystems.

Watch our bycatch animation to find out more.

Worldwide it's estimated that 23% of what is caught in fisheries is bycatch. That's one in four things caught - chucked back dead and wasted.

Some fisheries are of course worse than others. In some shrimp fisheries 85% of the catch (yes, you read that right) is bycatch. Only 15% is the intended catch.

And it's not just nets that are responsible. Baited long-line fisheries (and we should emphasise the 'long') in the Southern Ocean catch and kill hundreds of thousands of seabirds, and are one of the main reasons why so many species of albatross are endangered.

And then there are the fish, often forgotten in the context of bycatch. Fish species that are unmarketable, undesirable, too small to be landed legally, or even not getting a good price at market are chucked back over the side to make hold space for more lucrative catches. In some fisheries there is a bycatch of endangered species (like cod in the haddock fishery, or Bigeye and Bluefin tuna in other tuna fisheries) - often juveniles that will never have the chance to breed.

This represents a diabolical waste of marine life happening all over the world, every day.

We need our governments to identify and then take action on the fisheries responsible for bycatch to stop this trashing of marine life happening out at sea, out of sight. It's easy to get angry and upset about the plight of dolphins in trawl nets. But please spare a thought for the other victims of bycatch - and please - get angry and upset about them too.

Willie, Campaigner

Today's turned out to be my last onboard for this tour, and tomorrow I'm headed back to the UK. I may well contribute to the blog from land too, though.

This has been a transit day across the Channel. The dolphin-spotting has been on high effort, and to good effect. A Fin whale was spotted from the crow's nest, and a small group of Risso's dolphins passed by us (they're Sarah and my favourites, so that was good). We've seen common dolphins and porpoises too - so four cetacean species in a day.

Tellingly, we also passed two floating dead dolphins. Both were seen from the bridge wings and looked very decayed. We were unable to stop and examine them because we were in the midst of the 'Traffic Separation Scheme' here in the Channel.

The Esperanza is headed now for Brest, where we will spend the weekend. There'll be a few crew changeovers, and we'll take on supplies. We'll also be holding open boats for those interested in finding out more about the ship and what we do (and why we do it!). Then we'll be straight back out doing what we can to stop dolphin and porpoise bycatch.

Now we're nearing the coast of Brittany, it looks very rugged and beautiful, with some very picturesque lighthouses atop the cliffs.

I'm leaving you, and the Esperanza, with a lovely picture of a gannet, taken by Kate. Kate *hearts* gannets. And they are fantastic. I'll think of them as I watch the pigeons fly back in London.

Willie, Campaigner

Hi - it's Jo here. I went out preparing to drop a buoy on Thursday, but there was no need - the exceptionally irate fishermen hauled, while shouting abuse and hurling flares at us. It's lucky you can hear flares, although they don't give much indication of which direction they are coming from. I just went for the head-down crash position whenever we realised they were coming.

It was all very surreal, and I found myself thinking about really mundane things like 'must cut my finger nails'. I guess it's an automatic reaction to take away any real fear. Still there's nothing like being shot at before 9am to kickstart your day. It was weird - I found watching the footage of the radio call the trawlers were making at the same time to the Esperanza much more threatening. Maybe it just felt more real. Unfortunately it was far too er 'colourful' to write here but I think the F-word was used something like 25 times in a minute.

Basically it was an amazing day - taster of action just makes me want more. I got to drive a jet boat for a very short while. The 'short' being because, despite making Frank collapse in hysterics, my going round and round in circles wasn't doing a very good job of getting us home. Still, much later in the same day I drove the Gray Whale inflatable back to the mothership from Plymouth harbour, after dropping off journos. This was much easier than the Harold Z inflatable, although I still managed to zigzag somewhat.

And there's more - I saw a basking shark today. It was huge. I mean really huge. Still holding out for a glimpse of a humble harbour porpoise. Only really got tomorrow to try but you know you can't have it all. Can't believe that it's over so soon. But all good things and all that... and it has been so unbelievably good.

I can't believe I'm leaving tomorrow. Did my last watch last night and got a beautiful sunrise. Other than feeling some serious sleep deprivation things are pretty great. Better run and clean up the galley before lunch. Bye!

Jo, Assistant cook

The WDCS team onboard the Esperanza - that's Marijke, Steffi and myself, Simon - are here to monitor the cetacean life in the Channel and investigate the interactions of dolphins with fisheries operating here. The data we hope to gather will support and strengthen what few studies have been done before and will help conservation efforts.

The ship is a familiar place after our work last year and we know many of the crew. Our research this year has a focus on working at height. As well as maintaining watch from the bridge wings, we're making observations from the crow's nest. It's 19m off the sea so it's quite a thrill being up there. You're above all the happenings on deck, and when the waves sway the boat it's a giddy feeling. We are up there for the view. Its vantage point allows us to see beyond where we normally spot cetaceans from the bridge level and to increase our sighting range even further we look through binoculars at all times.

The aim of this dual mode is to track animals from as far away as possible in order to investigate whether they respond to the Esperanza.

Results from 2004 indicate that they are move towards the ship up to a distance of more than 1500m. It is important for us to find out the extent of this 'responsive movement' so that we can improve our estimate for the number of common dolphins in this area of the Channel.

Simon, WDCS scientist

As every day, I was on duty on Wednesday evening, keeping track of our Scottish acquaintances. They had taken advantage of the night to set their net and to continue their unsustainable fishing. I went to bed at 0.30am with the hope of being woken early in the morning to take part in the action.

This Thursday morning we were still near one pair of trawlers, Sunrise and Ocean Dawn - close to Lizard Point. The two others decided to go back to Plymouth. We knew they had hauled their net at 3am and had set it a little bit later, but we were determined to go and stop them one more time.

Over the past few days, I have been staying on the Esperanza but today I had my place onboard the Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB), as crew (pictured). So at 8am we launched two RIBs and went at full speed in their direction. We didn't have time to put our buoys in their net because of an unexpected hauling. We were welcomed with some flares aggressively shot at us. When one of the fishing boats was free, she tried to intimidate us with threatening manoeuvres and poetic swear words. The other one quickly hauled its net. No dolphins were caught this time. We stayed taking photos and recording video.

They decided to go back to Plymouth, so we were glad to have stopped their fishing today. We went back to the Esperanza. A few minutes later, a basking shark appeared, as if it was thanking us.

I know how hard a fisherman's job is but we can't let the destruction of the sea wildlife go on. Maybe dolphins are symbolic for our claims about biodiversity, but if it's the only way to make public opinion aware of global problems, then I want to take part in this struggle.

Sometimes, some politicians object to the social consequences of our environmental demands. Most of the time they only look at the short-term aspects and not the long-term advantages of environmental conservation.

In the case of unsustainable fisheries, we also think of the fishermen's future. Maybe we stop this kind of fishery now but perhaps it will be the only way to permit the continuation of fishing in the global point of view.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, a French writer, said: "The earth doesn't belong to us, we borrow it from our children".

François Paillard, Volunteer deckhand

There is a behaviour by dolphins known as 'sharking' when they swim with just their dorsal fin out of the water. Today however we saw the real thing - a six metre+ shark right alongside the Esperanza.

It was a basking shark, the second largest fish in the world. These things can grow to up to 10 metres in length, but there's no need to be afraid of them. Like the Fin whales (the second largest mammal) we saw out in the Channel last year - they don't eat anything bigger than plankton!

Everyone was out on deck to have a look, although I'm sure the photos are none-too-impressive (sorry!). Most of the time all that was visible was a large dorsal fin and the tip of the tail. But for a brief moment the shark was visible about 10 metres from the ship, and we could see it just below the water - those massive fins protruding up and the white gape of the inside of its mouth, clearly stretched open to feed. It was an amazing sight, maybe even better than my close encounter with the dolphins yesterday.

Basking sharks seem to be becoming a more common sight in UK waters. This one was about 15 miles south west of Plymouth. They are here to feed on the plankton - temperate waters like those around the UK are rich in plankton in the spring, when the water starts to warm up.

But these gentle giants are the unwitting victims of bycatch too. Only last year a few bodies of these huge animals were washed up on south west beaches at once - all believed to have become entangled and killed in fishing gear.

Willie, Campaigner

It's 10am and we're steaming towards Plymouth, following the Ocean Dawn and Sunrise who look like they're heading back to port.

We were up early again this morning after sticking with the pair overnight. We know they set their nets and started fishing at around 3am, so we launched our Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs) at first light to try and make them stop. No sooner had our inflatables set off towards them then they started firing flares (pictured) - at the same time they came together and it was clear they were going to haul their nets, and wanted to do so before we got there.

Once we were on the scene they kept firing flares [I counted nine, I think] from both trawlers. These were aimed directly at the RIBs and the skippers from the bridge windows seemed to be firing most of them. There were several near misses with both of the RIBs. One of the flares was mere inches from the Gray Whale, and the other boat had a similar close call. When our RIBs were a bit closer they also threw projectiles again - potatoes (they seem to have a lot!) and, more worryingly, metal shackles. Thankfully no one was hurt, and once they'd finished hauling they headed off to Plymouth.

So we stopped them fishing, again. Which is good.

As they steamed off they made radio contact with the Esperanza. I'm just back in but I've heard the recording of the most bizarre threats they have made via radio. They claim to be off to Plymouth to arm themselves with guns, on advice from lawyers and their MPs (!?) - and have threatened to shoot at us if we target them again.

I certainly hope that they didn't pay for that legal advice, as it seems a tad ropey to me.

Meanwhile we've heard news that two of the pair trawlers we've already seen from Bayonne in France have been arrested and had five tonnes of sea bass seized, because they were using an illegal net.

Willie, Campaigner

It's been a long day out on the inflatable. It was my first trip on the Gray Whale, and I kinda like her. She's a nice boat. She's a bit bumpy when going at speed though, and certainly seems to spend a lot of the time in mid-air for a boat named after a whale...

Most of the day we were on pretty high alert, because things were happening fast and we had to be on constant lookout for other vessels or things being aimed at us.

But we did have a little 'down' time just after lunch (or what would have been lunch if we hadn't been out on the Rigid Inflatable Boat). The water was very calm. The trawlers were quite calm too and a good few hundred yards away from us, but not fishing. Nothing was happening so a couple of my boat mates (and me, maybe) made ourselves comfy and rested our eyelids.

Then Kate shouted 'dolphin!' and everyone was up immediately. A common dolphin jumped out of the water right beside us. For a few brief moments a small pod of five dolphins visited us, bow-riding with the Gray Whale. Mike and I were leaning over the bow and watching, transfixed, mere inches away.

But then as suddenly as they'd appeared, they were gone. We were all glad there were no nets in the water ahead of them. This time, at least.

Willie, Campaigner

What we have managed to do today is effectively stop the entire UK pair trawl fleet from fishing all day. I know Niall's updated the blog a bit but I'll try and give a first hand account.

After we deployed the buoys in the net between Ocean Dawn and Sunrise it took them a short while to come together to haul. They were none-too-pleased that the buoys had snagged their net, particularly because they hadn't been fishing for very long. Even before they hauled the net they started setting off distress flares over our Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs).

Once the ships were apart they began hurling things at us. Mostly abuse (and none of it very inventive) but also vegetables (carrots and potatoes!), metal bolts and shackles, and (with a spectacular lack of success) plastic bags full of stuff (which think included fish guts, oil, and urine, variously - nice). Safe to say though that none of these guys would be in much contention for the hammer-throwing or caber-tossing at the Fraserburgh Highland Games.

As we expected the 'free' boat made a point of chasing our RIBs. Then they headed for the Esperanza and shouted some abuse across the bow - again, colourful but not inventive. And they couldn't even hit the ship with their plastic bag 'bombs' from less than 10 metres. They told us we should go take action on the French (obviously they haven't heard what we've been up to the past couple of days). Interestingly they also accused our captain of being a traitor to his own country (he's Dutch, and I haven't seen him setting fire to any clogs recently?).

It all died down a bit for a while as the boats sailed off, not together, but we kept close. Then they started to set their net, just as two more pair trawlers arrived on the horizon, it was the cavalry (aka Ocean Star and Ocean Crest). We managed to get in the way and stop them setting their net. Then an almighty game of cat and mouse ensued. Or rather four cats and two mice. Both pairs of trawlers variously tried to give chase to the RIBs, and at least two (Ocean Dawn and Sunrise) continued setting off a variety of flares - directed straight at us. Thankfully these guys wouldn't be much cop at shooting contests either. They continued throwing projectiles at us too (by now they'd given up on the plastic bags, and settled on metal bolts and potatoes!) and a few of them did bounce off the RIBs. The Ocean Star and Crest also dogged the Esperanza for a while (quite why we don't know) and we think the Ocean Star had an observer onboard. Imagine our surprise then when the crew of the Ocean Star started hurling projectiles at us too!

Thankfully we have manoeuvreable inflatable boats and experienced crew, and no one got injured. We've brought the RIBs back in for tonight but, as usual, we will be sticking with these trawlers as long as we can.

I'm off now to catch up on the lunch and dinner that I've missed. I shall leave you with my comment of the day. Just after they started setting off flares at us, I turned to Kate and Gav and said "flares are so last season".

Willie, Campaigner

This morning we managed to stop the pair trawlers Ocean Dawn and the Sunrise from fishing. We attached buoys to their huge fishing net, which forced them to haul (pictured) and, so far, they haven't put it back in the water. Good result for us, and an even better one for the dolphins. Every minute that even one net is out of the water is another minute that these mammals are just a little bit safer.

Watch a video clip of the action: low resolution (845kb) or high resolution (4.2mb)

We've also put together a slideshow too.

After they'd hauled in their net, it didn't take too long for the trawlers to radio the bridge. I'm not going to go through what they said word for word, but the language was particularly colourful.

Listen to the radio message and shooting threat we received (we've 'bleeped' out the expletives!)

I imagine that they were then a little bit concerned that we hadn't completely understood their message, because they brought one of their trawlers to within five metres of the Esperanza and were able to yell at us in person, rather than over the radio. They were also able to take the time to throw a carrier bag full of something that should never be kept in a carrier bag, let alone thrown, at one of our Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs).

We also know that the other UK pair that we've encountered – the Ocean Star and the Ocean Crest – aren't fishing at the moment. They've come over to join the Ocean Dawn and the Sunrise. Shortly after their arrival, there was a bit of cat-and-mouse between the RIBs and the trawlers and at least two flares were fired at our guys in the RIBs. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and the situation seems to have calmed for the moment.

So right now we have four trawlers just a few hundred metres away from us in a kind of stand off. No one is moving, and there's an eerie calm, exaggerated by the still waters and slowly forming mist. I’m slightly intrigued about what the next few hours will bring.

Niall, press officer

After yesterday's activities the already dispersed French fleet disappeared from our radar - the last vessels we were tracking seemingly headed to port. Through the night we searched again for the familiar parallel blips of pair trawlers on the radar.

At about 5.30am we found another couple of pairs, and at first light we were still with one of them - which we quickly identified as the Ocean Dawn and Sunrise, who we've seen before, albeit in much worse weather.

These vessels are almost twice as big as the Ocean Star and Ocean Crest, and all of them are registered in Fraserburgh in the UK.

They hauled the nets just as we were about to launch a Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) to observe them, so we've changed tactics. Just after 9am we're launching the RIBs to go and pay them a visit, to do the same as we did with the French vessels yesterday - to stop them fishing.

We've now seen 14 different pairs of trawlers in this area - 12 French and two UK. It's little wonder that the local hand-line fishermen are unhappy with the presence of these trawlers just as the sea bass aggregate to breed, they can literally see them depleting the stocks in front of their eyes.

It's little wonder too that these nets, in these concentrations, pose a very real threat to the dolphin population in the Channel.

We're going out to do what we can to stop these trawlers, and I'll update you once we get back.

Willie, Campaigner

The second day in the inflatable. Well, we've been out more of course, but this is the second day since we have eight (or more?) pair trawlers around. Yesterday we went out to identify them all. That was quite interesting. We were driving around and receiving co-ordinates from the ship to find out which trawlers we hadn't identified yet. Luckily we had really good weather.

While we were trying to find out who was who, we found a little yellow balloon drifting. We took a minute to pick it up. I really hoped there would be a card with an address on it from a kid who sent the balloon off. Then I could have written him or her a postcard, telling them how we found the balloon at sea, while trying to stop pair trawlers from fishing because they're catching dolphins as well. But it was some kind of 80-year anniversary - a lot less interesting than I thought it would be. So we went on identifying French trawlers.

Then today, when I got up after my watch, there was a dead dolphin on deck. I'm usually not shocked very quickly by these things, but this dolphin had died recently. Besides the blood from the wounds on her beak from trying to get out of the net, she had milk coming out of her nipples. She either had her young with her and it drowned as well, or it is now swimming around without a mum. Either way, it really shocked me.

This morning we had swimmers in the water. In the afternoon we went out again to start interfering with their nets. After a while they hauled their nets and they had a few fish and no dolphins. That's good, but we still find dead dolphins in the sea. Tomorrow is a new day with new opportunities and good weather, so we will be out there again.

Maaike, Second mate

The redoubtable Magali, and Thilo the German campaigner, who's just joined the ship for a few days, jumped from the RIBs into the water in front of the trawlers, the Sonia Jerome and the Cote D'Amour from St. Nazaire. Again the swimmers held onto buoys with flags saying 'STOP KILLING DOLPHINS', and also this time 'STOP AU MASSACRE DES DAUPHINS', for obvious reasons. The trawlers changed course, and the two swimmers were pushed aside in the wake. They were picked up by the RIBs and repeated this a few times.

In order to try and get the trawlers to stop fishing we again deployed some buoys between the trawlers so that they became attached to the huge net strung between the pair. After continuing to trawl briefly, the pair came together to haul their nets, discarding the Greenpeace buoys in the process.

However, like the good environmentalists that we are, we believe in recycling. So we picked the buoys up and got ready to do it all over again. But we didn't need to, because they stopped fishing. As I type they are headed back to port in France, and we've just been buzzed three times by an exceptionally low-flying aeroplane that I suspect may be from the French coastguard.

Governments seem reluctant to stop these guys fishing, and stop them killing dolphins, so we have to. The less time those nets are in the water the less chance they have of killing dolphins. So we'll keep doing what we can.

Willie, Campaigner

Hi - I'm Thilo, campaigner. I got onboard two days ago. It's good to be on the Esperanza again. It took a while to get here but I am very happy to see so many familiar faces.

The day started early - 5am. Everybody onboard was excited about the pair trawlers all around us and what the new day was going to bring. We counted 22 boats fishing last night and with their enormous nets they are literally sieving the whole area. After launching our Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) we observed many nets getting hauled onboard.

Then we got called back to the Esperanza – the bridge crew spotted a dead dolphin floating in the sea. The animal was brought onboard and it was a depressing moment when we found out that it was a young mother - lots of milk was leaking from the dead body. I tried not to think about the baby dolphin that must be somewhere out there looking for its mum.

No need to explain that it was a fast decision to start direct actions to stop the trawlers from fishing in this area. I and a French colleague put on dry suits to jump in the water right in front of the trawlers.

View a slideshow of the action!

Do you believe me when I say that it is a strange feeling to leave the safety of the inflatable and get into the water while the trawlers are coming closer and closer? From the surface the fishing boats look even bigger and it's an odd moment when you get washed away by the swell they produce.

The only thing to hold on to while in the water is the buoy that carries the banner with our demand. We jumped off the RIB several times and several times the fishing boats had to alter their course. After the fourth round of jumping in the water and getting retrieved again I found out that the dry suit I put on was not a "real dry suit"... Ice cold water was running down my neck and got soaked up by the woollen jump suit I had on.

After some rest on the Esperanza we are thinking about further steps.

You can take action too - send an online fax to the EU Fisheries Commissioner and tell him to ban pair trawling.

Thilo, Campaigner

Okay - so I promised you some more, soon, so here goes.

Last night we went out just before 11pm to observe some hauls. As we were waiting to launch, looking out to starboard it looked like we were close to the coast - all we could see was a line of lights: the lights of pair trawlers stretching as far as we could see.

Last year we witnessed several pairs 'line up' and fish in formation. Have a look at our pair trawling animation then think what a line of 10 or 11 of those might be like.

Being on a Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) at night is a weird experience. I'd done it last year but we'd only ever had one pair of trawlers at a time then. Now, with so many, it was a bewildering array of lights and we had to rely on the navigational equipment rather than our eyesight to guide us. The waves were bigger than I expected, and usually the first you knew about them was when you got the sting of cold sea water lashing your face.

Not unsurprisingly the fishermen didn't seem too pleased to see us. They tried their best to haul as quickly as they could (even winding the fish onto the drums with the nets, which can't help their market value!) and bearing down on us with the free vessel whenever they could. Again, anyone'd think they had something to hide!

We didn't stay out too long last night, but the RIB went out again this morning to have another look, and we'd managed to stick with eight pairs of French trawlers throughout the night.

It was while the RIB was out to check the trawlers that we found the dead dolphin. The RIB came back to retrieve the dolphin and we brought it onto deck where it was measured and examined (pictured). As it was being lifted onto the ship, and I'd just finished telling Natasha that it'd probably be a male, I noticed that this was the first female dead dolphin we'd encountered. Observer studies on bass pair trawlers suggest that three quarters of dolphins killed in their nets are male. All the ones we'd found at sea so far certainly were.

When we examined the dolphin, we found it to be an adult female. Then we noticed that it was lactating. As it lay on the blue tarpaulin it was hard to know whether the dripping red blood or the leaking white milk was the more distressing.

Common dolphins give birth to live young in the same way as other mammals. Pregnancy in these dolphins lasts for about 11 months; the young feed on milk for at least 10 months.

We know that dolphins are often caught in nets in groups. We know that this female dolphin was producing milk. We can be pretty sure that this dolphin's calf is also dead. I know I am quite grateful that we didn't find the calf as I think that would have been very difficult to stomach - but it's the gruesome reality of what's happening in nets out here at sea.

On top of the sliced fins and flukes, and the cuts and slices across the nose and head, this animal probably suffered extreme trauma from thrashing about in a net. Now think about those injuries plus the distress it must have felt if its calf had been in there too.

Governments know about bycatch. They don't know all the fisheries responsible - largely because they haven't bothered to find out.

But they *do* know that the bass pair trawling fishery continues to be responsible for thousands of dolphin deaths in this area. Knowing that, they MUST take action.

They're not doing enough. And that's why we're out here. Just after we'd found that dolphin we launched the RIBs again to go and pay these French pair trawlers a visit to try and stop them fishing - something governments should have done already.

More (again) soon.

Willie, Campaigner

I wasn't quite awake this morning. It was a struggle getting out of bunk. We've been sticking with the trawlers all night and the place is still crawling with them. There are eight pairs dotted around us as I type. I'd been out on a late-night Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) ride to try and document some hauls. So I hadn't had my requisite beauty sleep.

Then I remembered I was on mess duty - it was all I could do not to shout at the stragglers who kept wandering in to make tea or toast when I was trying to tidy up. At 8.30, after I'd finished, I headed to the bridge for a catch-up on what was happening. No sooner had I set foot on the bridge than Niall looked at me and said 'dead dolphin'.

A 'good morning' would have been nice.

We pulled the dolphin out of the water and onto deck and it's still being examined. It was our first female, and very recently dead. All of the telltale signs are there of death-by-fishing net. And - to make it harder to take - it was lactating. That means that in all likelihood somewhere out there a calf has died in a fishing net with its mother.

Even if the calf didn't get trapped in the net, it would die from starvation without its mothers milk.

So it's all go here. We've just launched the RIBs to pay the trawlers a visit. We'll update you soon. Meanwhile, if the thought of that dead dolphin and her calf have made you angry or upset - then please - fax the EU Fisheries Commissioner and tell him to ban pair trawling.

Willie, Campaigner

These French pair trawlers certainly hunt in packs. Just before lunchtime we spotted a pair on the radar, by lunchtime there were a few, and by the time we'd launched the Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs) after lunch there were ELEVEN pairs of French trawlers around us. All some 30 miles off the UK coast. As the dolphin-spotters kept radioing in sightings we all imagined what a dangerous obstacle course such an array of underwater nets must pose for the dolphins.

I'm sure you've heard the phrase that something is as difficult as 'herding cats'? Well you should try and keep track of 11 pairs of trawlers all fishing in different directions at once! We were like the proverbial bull in a sweetie-shop, or whatever it is.

We identified all of the fishing vessels - they were from L'Orient, Bayonne and [predominantly] St. Nazaire. Most of them we've seen before either this year or last. Francois made radio contact from the RIB - but not all of them were very chatty.

Today we really thought our luck was in. We had two RIBs in the water, and after identifying all the vessels we were intent on observing as many hauls as we could. Then we got radio contact from the African Queen RIB to say it was having engine trouble. The RIB was dead in the water and right up beside a pair of none-too-friendly trawlers! On more than one occasion the angry fishermen headed straight at the RIB with their vessel. Immediately the first priority became the safety of the people in that RIB - so the Esperanza and the other RIB headed straight for it.

It's at that point you realise how easily a RIB can get lost in even the tiniest waves when it's a short distance away from you and not moving.

We managed to get everyone and the RIB back onboard, and the trusty Sabine is checking out the engine problem as I type.

It seems that luck has been against us so far on the trip, what with the weather and mechanics. We all have various parts of our anatomy crossed that fortune favours us soon.

Meanwhile, if anyone has any good suggestions as to what the 'collective noun' should be for such a group of pair trawlers - please let us know!

Willie, Campaigner

While dolphin-spotting, and trying to keep my eyes facing front despite the biting wind in my face, I noticed we had a hitchhiker. A small black-headed gull was taking a break and sitting on the Esperanza by the bow. Now this is by no means a phenomenal sight [and certainly doesn't match Kate's sighting of a stowaway short-eared owl while in St Kilda last year] but it was heartening nonetheless.

While you're surveying the sea surface for the appearance of a dorsal fin, the birds are your constant company. And sure there are gulls, a few different species are easily recognisable, but there are a lot more birds besides the gulls.

Fulmars are quite like gulls but a bit more bulky looking, and their wings are so straight they look like they're frozen stiff. They glide effortlessly across the very surface of the water, and on calm days bob about in quite social-looking rafts of several birds.

Bonxies ['great skuas', to give them their Sunday name] are impressive beasts that look like large dark brown gulls. Usually we see them as solitary passers-by - these are the pirates of the bird world, stealing the fish from the mouths of other birds in mid-air.

Guillemots are tiny, black and white, almost penguin-like birds. They're usually seen in clumps of three or four, and wait until the ship is right up next to them before suddenly disappearing beneath the surface in a flurry of bubbles.

Then there are gannets (Kate and Gav's favourites) great big, gleaming white birds that dive spectacularly into the sea. When you're up close to trawlers, watching these magnificent beasts plunge headfirst into the water close-up is one of the plus-points of a cold, bumpy, early-morning Rigid Inflatable Boat ride.

But for now I'm looking at the gull, preening itself on the bow. If it's getting the same blast of wind I am, then I can't say his resting point is very well chosen. But then I guess it's better than sitting with your bum in icy cold seawater.

Willie, Campaigner

Today we received one of my favourite deliveries. I feel strangely comfortable knowing that they're just a few decks below, sprawled out, waiting patiently to be devoured. They're a little bit out of date, but on this occasion I really don't mind. When I'm at sea, I miss newspapers more than just about anything else; more than pubs, more than walks in the country, more than having a normal telephone conversation without satellite-induced delay.

I've rustled, ripped and flipped my way through two of them today. An exhibition of will power means that there are still papers onboard that I haven't read yet. Without another chance to get supplies onboard for the next week, I'll have to make them last.

When I'm back home, I'm pretty sure that I'll start taking rural rambles, clinking pint glasses and land-line phone calls for granted. But at the moment, I can't believe that I'll ever fail to be cheered by the newsprint-stained fingers gifted by the crackling pages of a fresh newspaper.

Niall, Press officer