We had earlier established that they had no quota to fish here and according to our information the ship has already been blacklisted in different parts of the world. This week the EU Commission had also blacklisted them as an IUU vessel (fisheries world is full of acronyms and this one stands for Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported). We did our thing, documented the ship and attached the pirate flag also known as the Jolly Roger on the ships side. We now have enough evidence on their illegal activities to demand their arrest at their next port call within the European Union.

We told shared this information with the captain and I think it got him thinking. After a while he called us on the radio again and wanted to talk about fishing and the problems we are addressing here. He admitted to us that the world's fish stocks are in danger. Everywhere he fishes, the catches are getting smaller and smaller.

He also wanted to know about the life cycle of the cod and how his fishing could be affecting the stock here. He had experienced the collapse of a stock before when he fished for orange roughy, a deep water fish that can live up to 150 years old and does not start reproducing until it is abut 30 years old. He had noticed that fishing had seriously harmed the stocks he had fished in the southern Hemisphere. Now he was here, in the Barents fishing cod with his huge ship.

The captain asked us what he should do? Stop fishing and not feed the starving people in the world? We didn't remind him of the fact that his fish was destined to the European market, as a luxury food for well fed Europeans and that similar ships to his also fish for the Europeans right now off the coast of Africa. These distant water fleets are literally stealing the fish from the starving people in West-Africa in order to satisfy the European taste for seafood. Although he has flagged his ship to an African country, those people in Togo have never tasted a Barents cod in their lives.

We did however tell him that to over fish now, is not going to be a solution to world's food production problems. It will only make it worse in the long run and we do not want to pass the point of no return. 75% of the world's fish stocks are now out of safe biological limits. We also told him that we are not against fishing. Us Greenpeacers also want to eat fish! But we want the fishing to be better regulated, enforced and sustainable over the long run. We told him about marine reserves. Large sea areas that should be closed to all fishing and other extractive use in order to make fishing sustainable outside the reserves in the long run.

The pirate captain grew silent many times during the conversation. So did those listening on the bridge. We all shared a common problem for a while. The captain of a pirate fishing boat illegally fishing and the captain and the campaign team of a Greenpeace ship. There we were, both sides hoping that the international community and decision makers would act soon and take some bold, unpopular but necessary steps to save both the fish and the hungry people of the world.

In the end the pirate captain concluded that to solve these problems we need more condoms; there are too many of us and not enough fish!

Well, I can't argue with that one!

- Sari