Our First Bottom Trawler

Posted by at 10:20 AM, October 18, 2004

(C) Greenpeace

Today we bagged our first bottom trawler!

A week since we left Falmouth, I was beginning to wonder if we would ever find anything! But this morning we were greeted by a satisfying trawler shaped echo on the radar.

A Spanish one as it turns out, and very friendly.

We launched the inflatables and a couple of teams were sent over to go onboard. Then we went out again this evening to watch them haul in their nets.

The bridge of the bottom trawler was filled with computers and screens, which showed the captain the location of the net on the bottom. One screen was filled with lines, scrawled across the screen and tightly packed together. This showed where the vessel had already bottom trawled - like a thoroughly ploughed field.

It was an impressive and disturbing sight to see the huge trawl equipment being hauled from the depths of the Atlantic. After 45 minutes of winching, the massive red trawl doors emerged from the waters and thudded against the trawler’s stern. Then the bouys, the heavy rock hoppers and the net emerged. Finally the cod end, filled with the carnage of the deep sea.

The cod end was lifted up, opened and the target fish and marine critters like rays, shark, dog fish and starfish spilled into the open fish hold.

After learning so much about this type of fishing and the damage that it is calling, it is a strange feeling to be onboard a bottom trawler witnessing the destruction first hand.

We walked down to the fish hold on the deck, near the stern, to get a closer look. It was a slippery business on deck and required some careful navigation to avoid some unexpected close contact with the now dead critters of the deep sea.

Then it was down below deck, into the fish sorting and processing area. A maze of conveyor belts, machinery and workers was crammed into the tiny space. Sorting, discarding and filleting all happens here in what looks like a twisted Dr Suess factory.

Then as dusk began to fall and the winds picked up, it was back in the inflatables and back to the Esperanza.

It brings a whole new level of reality to this issue to be out here. We must now try to impress the reality of this destruction on the UN.

But right, now after a hectic day’s work, we are recovering, all safe back onboard our home-away-from-home.

Now, if I can only get rid of that fishy smell....

- Ness