Flying and swimming

Tweety's Revenge | Home | Rust Warrior

20 June 2006

by Alex, onboard the Esperanza

©Greenpeace/Gavin Newman

All was calm in the campaign room, until one of the crew ran in and yelled 'We're flying.' It seems that they'd spotted a long liner (that's a kind of fishing vessel). If this ship is fishing tuna, then they're doing it illegally because long lining is prohibited in these waters at this time of year.

I thought 'flying' was one of those sea farer's terms for sailing very fast, but they were speaking literally. Tweety was going off on an investigative mission. If you haven't been keeping up, Tweety is our helicopter. I know it's a piece of high-tech equipment and a vital tool for surveying ships out in the ocean, but I can't help but think that Tweety reminds me of a fat, red dragonfly.

The long liner turned out to be a carrier vessel. The crew told us stories of falling catches and reported that the tuna caught are smaller. Later on we spoke to some purse seiner vessels heading from Northern Cyprus to Antalya. They told us that their catches are ok, although the tuna they catch are also smaller every year.

The skipper said that 5 years ago there were 10 Turkish purse seiners fishing in the area. Now there are 100. This is a common sign or symptom of the downward spiral of overfishing , where fishing capacity increases as populations dwindle. More ships come to the fishery, or fishing methods become increasingly sophisticated so the actual catch never drops. That is, until the population is on the brink of collapse. And then it's too late.

Wah! Someone just announced a swim stop! I'll be back....

Interlude: The water is flat. In the distance, we can see the mountains of Antalya. One by one, the crew dive into the water. It's a bizarre sight, all these heads bobbing about in the big blue, with the huge structure of the Espy as a backdrop. A makeshift game of water polo starts up. People are jumping from the main deck. It's their first swim stop this year. Mannes (the Chief Engineer) does an amazing double pike somersault dive, which draws whoops of appreciation from the swimmers and a 9.8 from the Australian judge. I'm floating on my back in the cool water, eyes closed. The waves and I are definitely back on good terms.

Ok. Back to business.

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Comments

Love to have seen you all swimming .. good that you have a little bit of fun in such a hard world!

Posted by: Bobby and Cogs at June 20, 2006 9:19 PM

Great! enjoy!

Posted by: Charlie at June 20, 2006 11:06 PM

I miss the swim stops :-(
However, that must have been a sight to see...a double pike somersault dive :-)

Posted by: Mary Ann at June 21, 2006 6:08 AM

This does not look good at all, I dare say: http://www.guardian.co.uk/fish/story/0,,1801507,00.html
Moreover, if those Omega 3 are part of the oil to be gained from whales, too, then the Japanese Fisheries Agency's claim that whales will not be hunted for oil is probably already or at least soon to become a lie.

Posted by: Pavlos at June 21, 2006 8:57 AM

Does anyone aboard know the history behind Tweety's name? He may look like a fat red dragonfly, but as we all know, Tweety is a small yellow combover-challenged bird kept in a cage by a little old lady who owns a cat named sylvester and is renowned for saying "I tawt I taw a puddy tat."

I'm struggling here to see a connection, which means it's probably going to be obvious and I'm doing an Elmer Fudd.

Posted by: Brianfit at June 21, 2006 2:55 PM

Jealus, jealus, so jealus

Posted by: koyan at June 21, 2006 10:21 PM

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