We found us a bottom trawler!

Posted by at 09:08 PM, October 25, 2004

We could smell it in the air... we were in the fishing zone once more.
All day we were tormented by promising echoes on the radar screen, only to be let down each time by gill-netters or refrigerated cargo carriers.

As the day wore on, we were greeted with another smudge on the radar screen. This time we were not to be disappointed. On the horizon, the smudge materialised into a trawler. Excitement on the bridge reached new levels. And then, yes! It was a real live bottom trawler - a Spanish one called the Playa de Mendui&ntilda;a.

We could smell it in the air... we were in the fishing zone once more.
All day we were tormented by promising echoes on the radar screen, only to be let down each time by gill-netters or refrigerated cargo carriers.

As the day wore on, we were greeted with another smudge on the radar screen. This time we were not to be disappointed. On the horizon, the smudge materialised into a trawler. Excitement on the bridge reached new levels. And then, yes! It was a real live bottom trawler - a Spanish one called the Playa de Mendui&ntilda;a.

Jon, our captain, called the Playa de Mendui&ntilda;a’s skipper on the radio and he agreed to let us come onboard his trawler.

Soon, were into the inflatables and bouncing across the choppy Atlantic waves towards the bottom trawler. As one team went up the pilot ladder to have a chat with the captain, I waited below in the inflatable.

The fishermen were already hauling their nets, and as we had been told that they would be immediately heading 100 miles north for for their next trawl, we had a limited amount of time to do our work. Those of us in the inflatable below grew tense as the minutes passed, the trawler continued to haul and our team still remained onboard the fishing vessel.

On board the trawler, our guys talked to the captain about our campaign and asked him to stop bottom trawling in the area. They explained that it was extremely damaging to the deep sea ecosystem and that the UN was considering a moratorium on bottom trawling on the high seas. After a lot of too-ing and fro-ing between Greenpeace activists and the fishermen, they refused to stop bottom trawling. The team descended the pilot ladder back into the inflatable.

But while the crew and captain of the bottom trawler were distracted by their haul, they failed to notice our other inflatable. The trawler was already steaming at 9 knots as the banner team repeatedly tried to put an "EU deep sea destroyer" banner onto the hull.

Bouncing around in the inflatable on the huge swell and slamming up against a steaming trawler, it was a tense 15 minutes for the banner team. Finally, after numerous attempts they got the banner up!

Night has now enveloped the Esperanza, and we are in hot pursuit of the Playa de Mendui&ntilda;a to their new fishing grounds.

This morning we got a message from the land team that we had a few days to really influence the negotiations at the UN, where the general assembly is discussing moves to protect deep sea life..

So it has been fantastic timing to find this EU bottom trawler today, especially as we had freakishly good weather – sunshine and calm seas, in the North Atlantic, in winter!

It's been frustrating to hear that the EU has been blocking measures to protect deep sea life at the UN, while we've been out here documenting EU fleets destroying the fragile and vulnerable life of the deep sea.

We all hope that what we have done out here today helps to push delegates at the UN to do the right thing and support a moratorium.

- Ness