20 April 2006

A job for the weekend?

by Ed, onboard the Esperanza

The West Africa leg of the campaign is now over for the Esperanza and everything that was hoped for seems to have come to fruition - amazingly! There remains a lot of work to do now, with the ministers in Guinea and Spain and the EU...an unenviable job for the people of the EJF and Greenpeace. I think what we have all managed to do here so far, may well have long lasting effects which can help to make a change for the better, for people and the ocean, so well done everybody!!

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Binar 4 Fined

This morning we heard from the Spanish authorities that the Guinean government has sent a fax confirming the cargo of the Binar 4 was illegal and that also a fine has already been imposed and paid.The Spanish government.

The Spanish fisheries ministry will be announcing this during today - and apparently they will be praising the work we've done to draw attention to this issue. Also, all the fish that can be verified as Guinean will be held in a freezer until a decision made on its fate - here's hoping it gets shipped back to Guinea! Of course, it is hard to know where some of the fish comes - the pirates fish don't care where the fish comes from, so there isn't necessarily any reliable records.

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19 April 2006

Binar 4: Confiscation Confirmed!

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

More great news! As the Esperanza approaches Santa Cruz de Tenerife, we've just heard from Sara, who's back in Las Palmas, that the government will be confiscating any fish from Guinean waters that they find on board the Binar 4. The fisheries ministry have also invited us along to witness their inspection of the reefer. We don't know when the inspection will be yet - stay tuned, I'm sure there will be more news on this.

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Videoblog: Wrapping up the pirates

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Welcome to Las Palmas! After a chase of over 1000 miles and six days occupying the "Binar 4" we prepare to say goodbye to sunny shores of the Canary Islands. And Sam and Sara do their last videoblog together... boohooo...

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18 April 2006

Victory in Las Palmas! Binar 4 in deep deep trouble... (updated with photos)

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

It's Tuesday in Las Palmas, and have we got news for you! After a seven day occupation of the Binar 4, the two goverments - Guinea and Spain, have agreed that the Binar 4's 200-tonne cargo of fish is illegal. The Guinean fisheries ministry are right now meeting to discuss fines for the pirate reefer. Once they've made their decision, they'll present their findings to the Spanish government, who've already told us the 11,000 boxes of stolen fish will be confiscated - and hopefully returned to Guinea.

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17 April 2006

Day SIX - another activist arrested, but we're getting closer...

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

It's 9pm on Monday, day six of the Binar 4 protest. I've just come in from the bridge wing of the Esperanza, where Nadia's keeping watch on the reefer through binoculars. I've also just been talking to Sara - she's over by the reefer - who tells me that one of the activists has come down, and has been arrested - so we still have 2 people - one on the crow's nest, and one on the crane. They've been there for something like 90 hours now. After the arrest, Mr Kim, the apparent owner of the Binar 4 climbed up on the crane and started arguing with the remaining activist, and threatened to bring down the other activist on the crow's nest himself. I doubt she would be impressed. Anyway, the police intervened again, and made him back off. As I Sara told me all this on the phone, there was a rousing cheer from the gang on the dockside, as the police car went off with Oscar inside.

The guys on the Binar 4 have been incredible - this afternoon they were still smiling, still full of energy. Unfortunately, there wasn't much room on top of the crane, so the two guys there had barely enough room to sit, never mind lie. One of the climbers even gave a live radio interview - she conducted it by shouting from the top of the mast!

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Monday Update from Esperanza and Binar 4

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Hello from the Esperanza. Easter is over, at least here in Gran Canaria - there's a public holiday in other parts of Europe, but Las Palmas is definitely back at work. If I look out the window of the ship's campaign office, I can see the the masts of the Binar 4, tucked away behind a row of longliners - however, it's about half a our walk around the port to get there.

We've now got the webcam pointed in that direction - off the starboard side, but it's pretty hard to make out the Binar 4. Watch for passing traffic!

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Another Activist Arrested on the Binar 4

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

I'm posting this in the early hours of Monday morning - we've had a continuous occupation of the Binar 4 since Wednesday afternoon!

Today though, another activist, Xavier (AKA Happy) was arrested - he'd climbed down from the Crow's Nest to talk to the others, but got more or less muggged by one of the Binar 4's crew. The police intervened, arrested Xavier and booked him for disobedience. He's spending tonight in the cells.

The current group of Spanish activists have been on the Binar 4 since the early hours of Friday morning - that's nearly four days on board, on the crow's nest and crane. These activists had replaced the earlier group that had gone on board from the Esperanza on Wednesday afternoon - the changeover was done in the earlier hours of Friday morning. So the Spanish team have been up there nearly 72 hours!

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15 April 2006

Turtle activists held over the weekend in Delhi

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza in Las Palmas, The Canary Islands

Update from New Delhi - In an absurd move, of the 12 activists arrested for protesting outside the house of Orissa's Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik, three have been charged under the Wildlife Protection Act, and are being held over the weekend at the Tughlaq Road Police Station.

The ridiculous charges come because they transported dead Olive Ridley turtles from Orissa to Delhi in order to bring attention to the fact that in the last 10 years, a shocking 100,000 Olive Ridley turtles have died in Orissa. The UN had marked 2006 as the "International Year of the Turtle", an irony that's not lost on us here on the Defending our Oceans campaign.

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Saturday afternoon - protest continues on the Binar 4

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

It's a hot Saturday afternoon here in Las Palmas. Down the quay from the Esperanza, it's business as a the Binar 4 - we've still got activists on board the ship, up on the crane and crow's nest. That means that we've had a continuous occupation since Wednesday afternoon - four days! Not much has happened since the owner of the Binar 4 hung the banner saying "Greenpeace is violent" (peace is violence?). The police are being quite friendly towards us, and to the activists on board. Sara, Sarah and I have mentioned in earlier blogs, we're holding out for Monday - after the Easter holidays - when the Spanish government really has make a decision on the 11,000 boxes of illegally caught fish in the Binar 4's hold.

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14 April 2006

Strange things happen when you are no longer at sea

by Sara, onboard the Esperanza

Strange things happen when you are no longer at sea. It's not as though we have been away that long, but even so, what you become attuned to in a short period of time is turned on its head.

The mess room tables looked completely naked this morning, until Ed pointed out that we no longer had to have the sticky table cloths ('elephant skin') that stop your plate sliding from under your knife and fork like those guys with the sarsaparillas in western movie saloon bars.

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Guineans say "thank you"

by Sarah, onboard the Esperanza

I have just come back from a wander down to the Binar 4 to visit the activists, who are still up on the crane and masts. The crew of the Binar 4 have now put up their own banner to rival ours which says 'Greenpeace is Violent' in Spanish. The team onboard managed to get our banners back in place and are still happy.

But what really touched me was the three Guineans who had come down to the Esperanza to say "thank you" to us for what we are doing. They said that from Madrid to Barcelona and beyond all their mates are on the phone asking whether they 'saw the Greenpeace stuff on TV?', and saying how great they think it is. They said that Guinea is a poor country, their fish is being stolen and that they were really happy to see us here. If we do manage to have open boats here in Las Palmas they said they wanted to come down.

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Wallpaper: Atlantic Wildlife

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Due to popular demand - like everyone who posted the comments Slideshow: Atlantic Wildlife, West Africa thread, Elaine in Amsterdam has knocked up wallpapers of some photographs from our trip, including dolphins, turtles, terns and a booby (oooh, misbehave!).

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Poaching a pirate press conference

by Jim, in Las Palmas, the Canary Islands

Ok, here's the word from Jim, who went the Binar 4 press conference yesterday. In other breaking news - Marta is out of jail!

I couldn't believe it when I got the phone call from Paloma this morning: "the shipowner is going to give a press conference in front of the Binar 4 at 12 noon" This would be an excellent opportunity to get down there and tell our side of the story - let the journalists and the world know what is really going on in Guinean waters - and indeed in every ocean of the world. The problem we faced was that the police here are being very strict. The Spanish campaign team have already been barred from the port, and there was no way that the port communications manager was going to let anyone from Greenpeace into the shipowner's press conference!

So... we frantically hatched a plan. Donning dark glasses, a clipboard and a camera round my neck, I smuggled myself through the police checkpoint and mingled into the throng of hacks poking cameras and microphones into the face of the shipowner on the quayside.

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13 April 2006

Arrival in Las Palmas (updated) - Marta still in Jail (not anymore!)

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Welcome to Las Palmas! It's 20:04, GMT+1 (21:04 in Amsterdam). We've just come alongside in the commercial port of Las Palmas. In what was either a bitter twist of irony, or a sense of humour on the part of the port authorities, we've been berthed less than 200m from the Binar 4.

As a result, as the pilot took us into dock, we came in past the Binar 4, and could wave to our guys the crows nest and crane. They've been up there for more than 24 hours now!

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24 Hours on the Binar 4, and its murky history

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Latest news from the peaceful protest on the Binar 4 - one of our activists, Marta, has been arrested - but three others remain up on the masts and on the monkey island of the pirate reefer - where they've been for nearly 24 hours! Marta is still being held by the police, but we're hoping she'll be released soon. They're making sure that there's no movement of fish from the ship. There's constant police presence on the quayside, but it's friendly enough. Earlier today, the owner of the Binar 4 held a press conference at the Binar 4. One of our people on land, Jim, was present, and he'll blog something on this later.

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Video: The effects of pirate fishing

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Guinea's coastal communities are dependant on fishing, and are feeling the effects pirate fleets trawling their waters. This video shows the coastal communities of Guinea harvesting fish, and the pirate vessels that come within 4 miles of the coast to steal fish.

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12 April 2006

Pirate Fishing: The tangled web

by Sara & Dave, onboard the Esperanza, and Elaine back in Amsterdam

Ok, we admit it - this whole pirate fishing business is very messy, very complicated, and incredibly hard to explain. The pirates like it that way - it makes it easier for them to cover their tracks. Sara, with the help of onboard memory man Sam, spent a large chunk of last weekend huddled around a table in the lounge, with a bag of crayons, and lots of A4 sheets sellotaped together, trying to make sense of it all. They were also trying to illustrate the complicity of the great pirate conspiracy in a way that would help people not on board the Esperanza to understand it all, and wouldn't think that we were all mad.

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Activists on board the Binar 4! (updated, with photos)

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Update from the Esperanza: As the Binar 4 entered the port of Las Palmas, with "Stolen Fish" painted on its sides, four of our activists climbed on board, as a peaceful protest. So far, the authorities in Las Palmas are refusing to authorize the Binar 4 from offloading. Our activists are keeping an eye on things until Spain makes a move to confiscate this illegally caught fish.

When the reefer waiting to enter the port, the activists also branded it with the slogan "Stolen Fish" - painted five times across both sides of the hull. As already mentioned in the blog, we've been following this ship for six days - since we caught it illegally transshipping just outside Guinean waters, with trawlers that had been fishing in Guinean waters. More »

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Pirate Fish Smuggler Nabbed in Las Palmas

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Breaking news! - we have caught up with the Binar 4, the ship loaded with more than 11,000 boxes of stolen fish as it entered the Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands.

As the pirate smuggler waited to enter the port, activists in inflatables managed to paint "STOLEN FISH" in big white letters no less than five times on both sides of the reefer.

More news as we have it...

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Stolen Fish: Where your dinner comes from

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Throughout the Pirate Fishing leg of the Defending our Oceans expedition, we've attempted to tell the story of the stolen fish - pulled from the waters of already impoverished West African countries like Sierra Leone and Guinea, and served up on European dinner plates.

European shoppers pay more money for these fish than would be paid in African nations - but ultimately it's the African people that pay the price. The middlemen are the pirate fishing companies, taking the fish for free, and making a fortune from it. They don't have to contribute to maintaining fisheries or any of the practices supported by legal fishing companies. It's a race to the bottom - why obey the laws when the guy next to you isn't - and he's making more money, and not getting caught.

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Slideshow: Where your fish comes from

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

This is where your fish comes from. Tthe fishing vessels in this slideshow are licenced to fish in Guinean waters - but just because they're not pirates doesn't mean that there's acceptable conditions on board, for either the crew or their cargo of fish.

The fish are stored in squalid conditions below deck, in rusting fish trays. The freezers have - quite frankly - seen better times - they're covered in rust and grime. The temperature guages are rotted away. The trays of fish and cardboard boxes are stacked haphazardly.

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10 April 2006

Crazy Jumping Dolphins!

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

It's the dead patch of the afternoon - the heat of the day has set in, and the campaign office is sticky and stuffy. On the ship, watches are being checked - how close to tea break?

Then the cry goes up from Nadia, on the bridge, "Crazy Jumping Dolphins". There's a stampede from the campaign office towards the bridge. If I haven't left the telephoto lens on my camera, there's a few seconds of juggling, swearing and fidgeting before I follow the others out.

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Slideshow: Atlantic Wildlife, West Africa

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

It seems like years since we departed Cape Town and starting sailing north. Now, as we trail the Binar4 towards Las Palmas, it's probably time to do a little gallery of some of the wildlife we've seen along the way. I've done our best to identify all of the animals correctly - but please tell me if I'm wrong!

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Mauritania and the Ship From Hell

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

As we sail north towards the Canary Islands, it's sobering to read an article posted by Reuters on the dwindling state of Mauritania's fish stocks. The problems we've been highlighting are widespread across the waters of many poor countries According to the people that journalist Nick Tattersall talks to, the trawlers doing must of the damage in Mauritania are from the EU.

As a result, the EU boats can clean out the deeper parts of the 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ), while Mauritanian boats are small, outdated, and unable to compete. Like in the countries further south, most of the Mauritanian fishermen ply their trade in pirogues - the long wooden boats, painted with bright colours. According to the Fisheries Minister - €600 million of fish caught every year, Mauritania only receives about €100 million - he new government is determined to crack down on this drain on the country's resources.

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10,000 boxes of stolen fish making for Las Palmas

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Monday morning: The Esperanza is currently trailing the Panamian-registered refrigerated cargo vessel Binar4, as it makes a beeline for Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands - notorious centre of the fish-laundering business. We've been close to the Panamanian-registered Binar4 since before the weekend, as it started steaming north. This morning our folks in Spain presented evidence to the Fisheries Ministry in Madrid, outlining why the ship should be banned from entering the port of Las Palmas when it arrives, in two or three days time.

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8 April 2006

Gravity is free, use it

by Hughie, onboard the Esperanza

Hughie, our on-board pilot, was on the Esperanza during the Southern Ocean leg of the Defending Oceans expedition. Now he's back! And he's decided to tell you a story about how helicopters stay in the air...

Flying in a job like this requires special techniques that you wouldn't normally use in commercial aviation. Working with photographers is always a challenge, as they need and expect precision and positioning. Keep the light right, keep the height right - no specks in the horizon, and no full frame - it must be right. These pictures are going out for the world to see.

Lots of unseen forces are working against you when you fly, and a helicopter is a bit like a Bumble Bee, in so much as it should not fly!

If you treat air as water, and you can get a picture in your mind of how it behaves, then you have a start, and you can turn these forces round to work with you. I have done kayaking in rivers, and water behaves the same way as air when it is confronted by an obstacle. When air hits a mountain it is deflected up - this is a good situation, when it goes over the top it rolls and descends - this can be bad.

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Slideshow: Helicopters and pirate ships

by Pierre & Dave, onboard the Esperanza

You've seen the Southern Ocean from the air - now it's time to get a bird's eye view of the flat seas off West Africa, where pirate fishing vessels pack their freezers full of stolen fish. Now Hughie writes about flying, and we join him in the heli, in this slideshow...

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7 April 2006

Callous Bastards

by Pete, captain of the Esperanza

After being in an area such as this for a while, you begin to get a picture of what's going on around you. The way the weather changes at different times of day, the night sky, the phases of the moon, the wildlife, even the change in sea water temperature. But you also learn to identify the areas where you are likely to meet other craft; it is knowledge that just accumulates.

As has been well documented in other weblogs, we see a lot of local fisherman. They are in small canoes (pirogues), and generally speaking, in shallower water and close to the shore. The concentrations and exact locations vary - depends on the where the fish are I suppose.

These small craft do not show up on radar, or are lost in the "sea clutter". Radar cannot be relied upon to give the bridge watchkeepers sufficient warning of their presence. It's only by keeping a sharp lookout - especially so at night - that a ship will have sufficient warning and therefore sufficient time to avoid running them down and probably killing their occupants.

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6 April 2006

Return of the zombie ships

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Part 2 of a two-part story: Read Part 1 »

Last week, we told the story of the Chinese zombie ships of West Africa - this week we went back, and interviewed the men on board.

The Chinese fisherman clears his throat and gives a nervous glance to his right. "When I'm fishing I will be busy - it will be easy to forget".

We're standing on the deck of one the shattered 'zombie ships', the Lian Run 16, anchored 120km from the coast of Guinea. 38-year-old Jia, a lean, hardy man with sad eyes and a ready smile, is telling us how, five days ago, he said goodbye to his wife and 11-year old son, Xinyi. The next time he sees them, his son will be 13. It's easier to forget, it seems, than torture oneself.

After job losses in a coal plant in his native city of Dalian, Jia signed up for fishing through an agency. The Lian Run company flew him, his wife and his son all the way to Conakry in Guinea. Now he's on his own, on board a decrepit ship that isn't going anywhere.

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Slideshow: Return of the zombie pirate ships

by Pierre, onboard the Esperanza

Last week, we visited the Chinese zombie ships of West Africa, and published a slideshow of images showing the state of the ships - this week we went back to visit the crews on board, and to find out about the living conditions. Pierre Gleize's photographs bear witness to the situation.

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Videoblog: Pirate ship graveyard

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

We're taken on a tour of the pirate ship graveyard 150 km off the coast of Guinea, West Africa. Talking to some of the crew, 13 000km away from home, we hear stories of how they got to be there and see the ramshackle conditions they have to live in. Get an insight into the real business of pirate fishing.

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3 April 2006

Elvis has left the Atlantic

by Sara (media), onboard the Esperanza

It's a strange life. There aren't many jobs that I can think of where you stand on the bridge wing of a ship in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of the night, staring intently at a distant glow of light on the inky black horizon, willing with every fibre of your being that the glow will brighten into a group of pirate ships. Not a single one of us on that bridge wing questioned the normality of the situation.

Somewhere out on the water was our inflatable, the African Queen, carrying Sarah, Sam, Pierre, Stan, and Sabine, ready to investigate the "happening" on the horizon. Within seconds of launching, the African Queen zoomed away from our mother ship, disappearing into the night.

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Reefer Madness

by Sarah (campaigner), onboard the Esperanza

Rumours of our retirement have been greatly exaggerated. Despite reports of the Esperanza heading to the 'tropical' island of South Georgia (it has penguins!), we've actually been on the tail of the pirate trawlers all this time. Now Sarah brings us up to date with the latest adventure - Dave

I was woken up at 11pm last night, with the news that there were possible targets on the radar. I rushed up to the bridge to see the glowing green smudges on the radar. The smudges were not moving ­ a possible sign of boats transshipping - transferring cargo from one to the other.

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2 April 2006

Please, please check what you buy

by Hughie, onboard the Esperanza

Over the last week, we have witnessed some of the most degrading situations imaginable. Fishermen who are subjected to virtual slavery, and condemned to work aboard illegal vessels. The vessels themselves are not even fit for scrap - how they stay afloat is a complete mystery.

These men have to live on board with their documents held by the people they work for. Recently we assisted the fisheries enforcement agents to arrest a vessel that was 'not on the list' and escort it to Conakry where it will be 'dealt with'. For the boat, use it as a breakwater - it's rotten - but the crew, that may well be a different matter. We assume that they are all legitimate workers, but some may be refugees escaping from a life of war and poverty - what will be their fate?

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Conakry Roads

by MikeMate, onboard the Esperanza

Five miles off Îles De Loos, I awoke Stan. He'd been sleeping on a pile of folded up cockroach-infested cardboard fish boxes, all bearing the markings of sister ships to the Lian Run No 14. It was my "Cock-a-doodle-doo" that woke him up, on the VHF channel. Stan was one of five crew who'd spent the night on board the pirate trawler as it zigzagged its way to Conakry. According to him, there wasn't even a steering wheel in the wheel house.

"Stan, you don't seem to be slowing down. you're three miles off Île Kassa."

"Oh really?", he replied, "I'd better have a look'n'see what's happening, Mike".

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1 April 2006

Pirates: If you can't beat em? Join em!

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

It's already been a very busy day on board the Esperanza. The pirate fishing campaign has ended, and we're currently sailing southwest, away from land, and away from civilisation. A quick crew-campaign meeting this morning ended with a conclusion of 'to hell with returning to port', and a resolution to head to a remote island where we can take a break from the rigours of environmental campaigning, sunning ourselves on the beach while drinking improbable cocktails.

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31 March 2006

Just a Quickie from Ed

by Ed, onboard the Esperanza

(Ed wrote some of this just before, and right after our visit to Conakry)

Just a quickie. Another week or so has passed on board the Esperanza. We've been very busy - part of this blog was written a week ago but has had to wait due to us being so busy. We've had lots of technical problems and a few some emergencies that have now passed, it seems that it has been just one problem after another! Anyway, I made urgent repairs to all the little wooden greenpeace ships that are stuck with blue tack to the world map in the mess room , so everything should be ok now (Also the whole crew has been working really hard!).

More deck work has continued with several of the crew managing to paint their hair various shades of red and grey and I also managed to hit myself in the head with a hammer, whilst I was balancing precariously on top of some hand rails. I fell off and smashed a light bulb with my shoulder on the way down, I looked up and considered trying to remove the broken bulb from it's socket which would have given me a big electric shock. I instead, I decided that the hammer blow to the head was sufficient pain and suffering for the day, so I went and found Mike the electrician, so that perhaps he would get electrocuted instead of me. (He's used to it)

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Videoblog: Pirate boat arrested in Guinea, West Africa

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Here's some footage from the arrest of the Lian No.14, which was fishing illegally off the coast of Guinea, West Africa. Includes interviews with Helene Bours of the Environmental Justice Foundation and Greenpeace campaigner Sarah Duthie of Greenpeace.

Bit more serious than our usual vblogs...
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29 March 2006

Arrival in Conakry - during an eclipse

by Sarah, onboard the Esperanza

Almost everyone on board the Esperanza has been looking forward to watching the eclipse. It had been marked on calendars and in diaries almost since the day we left - we were supposed to be able to see an 80% eclipse of the sun. Of course, the other big event that we have all been waiting for is the arrest of a pirate boat. Pretty amazing that somehow these two things collided at the same moment.

After spending the night escorting the Lian Run 14

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Slideshow: Solar Eclipse

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza