Posted by Andrew via Email at 08:40 PM, July 31, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace/Natalie Behring |
The documentation team visited extremely picturesque Laura today. It's about a forty-minute drive from Uliga, where we're docked, and has a stretch of beach that looks right out of a movie. While there, Natalie took this picture of a local spear fisher. The real story is that he's biting his catch to kill it, but I think this photo begs for a more creative caption. I'll send a T-shirt to whoever posts the best one in the comments section - be sure to fill out the email address field (I'll keep it private) so I can get in touch.
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Continue reading "Photo caption contest" »
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 11:00 AM, July 30, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace/Natalie Behring |
We received another warm welcome on arrival today. First, Kirtley Pinho, Chair of the Board for the Visitors Authority, welcomed us and talked about what a travesty it is that Pacific nations get only five percent of the profits from the fish caught in their waters. He (half jokingly I think) suggested this isn't even worth their while, saying, "Might as well chase everybody out and raise the fish for ten years".
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Continue reading "Arrival in the Marshall Islands" »
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 12:40 PM, July 29, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace/Natalie Behring |
"True, the good old days have all gone now, and the fish is harder to get," Johnny Kirata, Deputy Director of the Kiribati Fisheries Division, says a little sadly. "We have to not deteriorate that condition further."
His office has fish posters and painted pictures of Kiribati islands on the walls each with vital statistics taped underneath. The desk is piled high with documents. Outside the blue Ministry of Natural Resources Development building, a lone satellite dish sits in high grass. Kirata continues, "We have already placed a 60 mile closed area for all fishing vessels around the capital Tarawa, around Christmas Island, around all those populated islands in Kiribati."
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Continue reading "Tough choices coming" »
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| (C) Greenpeace/Roger Grace |
For many of the team onboard the Rainbow Warrior, open boat days offer some of the most memorable moments of a tour such as this one. We get to meet so many people, from all sorts of backgrounds, and learn about their country, their culture and the issues they face. Importantly, this is also an opportunity to share the knowledge we have of threats facing the Pacific fisheries, and of course to take people on a tour of the Rainbow Warrior herself.
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Continue reading "Open boat Kiribati" »
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Posted by Andrew at 11:09 PM, July 27, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace/Roger Grace |
By Barbara, deckhand from Germany
We are in Kiribati, it's Sunday, our day off, and Phil has decided to
get a tattoo. When Phil rented a motor bike, he came across quite a
few people that got tattooed by this man Ian, and Phil decided that
this is what he wants too. In the afternoon he gave me a lift and we
were zooming around the island, so I decide to come with him. He
drops me off at the place and drives back to the ship to get Dillip,
another potential customer.
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Continue reading "Big, medium and small " »
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| (C) Greenpeace/Natalie Behring |
We've come to Kiribati aware that fish is the most important resource for this country's economy. With one of the largest Exclusive Economic Zones in the region (3.5 million square kilometres), Kiribati gives out more fishing licences than it's neighbours, and earns about $42million (US) a year in license and access fees. We were interested in how the Government deals with the dilemma of needing to make money out of fish while also needing to protect their fishery from overfishing.
So we went to speak with the Senior Resource Economist with the Kiribati Fisheries Department, Tetoaiti Tabokai who has the job of managing this dilemma.
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Continue reading "Crowding out the foreign fishers" »
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 11:40 AM, July 25, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace/A. Davies |
With us watching, the grandson tries to looks serious as he put out his own fishing line. Although only twelve, Abera is already an experienced fisherman because his grandfather, Atera Ari, has been taking him fishing since he was six. Through a translator, Atera later tells me, "I take them with me to give them exposure, and also so that their system is used to the ocean - so they won't vomit, and they will like the ocean and the smell of the ocean."
Continue reading "Two generations" »
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 10:40 AM, July 23, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace/Natalie Behring |
On arrival at Tarawa Island, the capital of Kiribati we are welcomed by two local councils, a choir, unimwane (elders), and two traditional dance groups. There will be speeches and dances and gifts, but before the welcoming proceedings can truly get underway, a local official tells us, there must be the garlanding – a dance where flower laurels are put on all of our heads. Pretty neat!
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Continue reading "Spirited Welcome" »
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 04:00 PM, July 22, 2004
If you don’t know who Te Vaka is then you are probably not from this part of the world - so you will just have to trust me when I say that they rock.
They wrote Our Ocean, Our Future, Our Choice, for the Rainbow Warrior tour of the Pacific Islands.
Go to song download page (MP3)
The song is a passionate call from the people of the Pacific to their leaders,
and to the world's fishing industry, to ensure that the world's last healthy
tuna fish survives large-scale commercial fishing and pirate fishing.
It is also an excellent song so add it to your mp3 collections, get your local radio station to play it, share it with your friends (non-commercially), use it to help spread the word about saving one of the world’s last healthy fisheries.
Continue reading "Our Ocean - song for the Pacific" »
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| (C) Greenpeace/Peter Sandison |
Today was a normal workday on board the Rainbow Warrior. The deck crew was doing some painting, and finishing the new linoleum job in the main deck hallway (yellow because that's what we have left over from doing the mess room floor). The engine department worked on the alarm system for our water maker (to automatically warn them of potential trouble). They also finished some work to reclaim engine heat for hot water. Neil, the radio operator went up the mizzenmast to pull down a no longer used wire antenna.
But at 3:25pm work stopped to observe the equator crossing. This was especially fun for the nine crewmembers who had never crossed the equator by boat before. We're ahead of schedule so there was time to drift for a while, right by the line.
A couple of sea turtles came and loitered around the ship for about an hour. Maybe they were curious to find such a funny thing floating in the middle of nowhere - more likely they were trying to scrape off their harmless (but probably annoying) suckerfish hitchhikers.
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 06:40 PM, July 20, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace/Roger Grace |
It's what we do between 08:00 and 08:30, six days a week. Scrubbing toilets, mopping floors, cleaning walls, garbage and recycling - all of that fun stuff. But I also have a couple of housekeeping items for this weblog.
First, sometimes updates are not posted the same day they happen - like if I have to wait for the translation of an interview, for example. In these cases, I'll backdate the post so things stay in the proper chronological order, but I will also mention the new update in a current post so that you don't need to worry about missing anything.
That said, make sure you see the update about visiting Naboutini village.
Second, big thanks from all the crew to everyone who has posted comments of support. It is always good to hear. I'll also see if I can get your comments about the Fish Warden story passed on to Simone.
Comments (1)
Posted by Andrew via Email at 11:20 AM, July 19, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace/Roger Grace |
Bula (Hello) all,
It took us almost an hour driving in the Rainbow Warrior's Avon (boat) to find the two fishing ships because the swell was pretty high. It was like looking over moving hills of water. This also made it a rough ride. As soon as we got a visual on the two ships we saw them moving closer to each other.
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Continue reading "Second meeting" »
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 10:40 PM, July 17, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace |
This afternoon Derek (captain) spotted a ship on the radar. From its behaviour, he guessed that it was fishing, and scrambled the boat team. Within minutes we were away. Myself, Lagi (campaigner), our photo and video people, Francisco as boat crew, and Phil (boat mechanic) driving. We made decent time across fairly calm ocean.
Continue reading "A chance encounter" »
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 09:40 PM, July 16, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace/Roger Grace |
Caught a fish today. A skipjack tuna, which are relatively abundant in this part of the world (and very tasty with a little soy sauce and wasabi, we will reluctantly admit). Phil gets credit for the catch. He likes to set a line off the stern when his busy schedule permits.
Surprisingly (to me), some people are actually shocked to find out we fish on the Rainbow Warrior. But after we point out that (unlike some people) we aren't taking undersized fish, waste nothing, only target species not at risk, and (at an average of less than one fish caught per week) are not likely to overstress the stock - most people realize that we're only practicing what we preach - responsible fishing.
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Continue reading "When in the pacific…" »
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 11:00 PM, July 14, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace/Roger Grace |
Ni Sa Bula Vinaka. I'm Lagi Toribau, Assistant Oceans Campaigner for Greenpeace, and I am onboard the Rainbow Warrior. She departed Suva this morning, last night we had a moving farewell ceremony performed by a group of locals (who's day jobs are all with the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation).
Continue reading "Farewell ceremony in Suva harbour" »
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| (C) Greenpeace |
There are not a lot of cyberactivists in this part of the world yet, but what they lack in numbers they make up for in enthusiasm. Two of them came down to see the Rainbow Warrior yesterday, and Marilyn wrote a great update about the visit. Marilyn also works with the International Water Program, which has sustainable coastal fisheries as a focal area. They also work on sustainable management of tuna stocks, working closely with the department of Fisheries and FFA. Here's her update...
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[Editor's note: Just received an update from Sunil as well. Posted it bellow. Thanks both of you for your excellent updates!]
Continue reading "Update from a local cyberactivist" »
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Posted by Andrew at 10:47 PM, July 12, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace/Natalie Behring |
It's five o' clock in the morning and I'm standing on the balcony on the phone with Michelle. We're trying to decide if it's raining. "Well, there is water in the air moving vertically downward," I said, "But I think it's more like a drizzle."
We had arranged the day before to meet Conway, a Suva local, if it was NOT raining. Now Michelle and I were trying to guess what a Fijian would call "raining" - as opposed to "rainy", "drizzling" or "a little damp out"? In hindsight, I suspect Conway was blissfully asleep when we called him to say we were on the way, but after we sorted out the Fijian definition of "hill", we picked him up right were he said he would be.
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Continue reading "Naboutini village" »
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Posted by Andrew at 12:48 PM, July 11, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace/Roger Grace |
Here's a report from Roger, our marine biologist/underwater photographer...
The order was made. My mission, should I accept it, was to go to Beqa Lagoon and bring back pictures of the fabulous seafans we had heard rumours about.
I accepted the mission, and chose Norbert and Mal as my associates. Armed with scuba gear, underwater cameras and video, we set out with Dive Connections to prove, or otherwise, the rumours.
Slideshow (HTML)
Continue reading "A day at Beqa Lagoon" »
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Posted by Andrew at 11:49 PM, July 10, 2004
He isn't paid for what he does. He doesn't get a uniform. He works alone at night, confronting poachers. Yet Saimone Ratukadreu says he will continue to protect his village's traditional fishing ground for as long as he lives.
We came to Namakala village looking for the Honorary Fishing Warden. After getting permission to enter the village, we walked along concrete paths through the roadless village to Saimone's house. We'd had no way to contact him in advance, so the five of us (Michelle from the Australia Greenpeace office, Siti from the Fiji office, a videographer, a photographer, and I) show up unannounced outside his empty house. Simone's day job is farming, and he was out in the fields. A young man of the village went to tell him we were there.
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Continue reading "Honorary Fish Warden" »
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Don’t worry if you missed today’s open boat – there’s another one tomorrow. But today’s went really well. The Rainbow Warrior was anchored off shore from a downtown park, and crewmembers shuttled about 300 people out for tours. Back on land there was also educational display and fish painting for the kids (paper fish painting, not the real thing).
If you are in Suva, between twelve to four tomorrow you can catch a free ride out to the ship leaving from the steps by Tiko’s. For those of you who are not from around here, Tiko’s is a floating fish restaurant, and yes, the Rainbow Warrior touring the Pacific Islands to talk about fisheries issues - so you can find any irony there that you want. If it helps, I had a lovely dinner at Tiko’s last night, and can recommend it.
Hmm, but does it make it any less ironic if I tell you that the whole point of the tour is to help ensure a sustainable fishery into the future, not necessarily to “save the fish”?
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I just realized that this is a weblog about fish and fisheries issues and communities in the Pacific islands and we don't have any photos of fish or Pacific Islanders up yet. Luckily Suva has a very active fish market.
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Continue reading "Fish!" »
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Posted by Andrew at 08:14 PM, July 09, 2004
I don’t mean that in the big, philosophical/religious sense of, “Why are we here?”. (Although if you know the answer to the big one, drop me a line.) But as for the Rainbow Warrior and the Pacific Islands, it’s just that this is the one of the world’s last healthy fisheries. Heck, it is THE last healthy industrial tuna fishery. Sixty percent of the world’s tuna comes from here. So why is the Rainbow Warrior here instead of in one of the crisis zones?
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Continue reading "Why are we here?" »
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Send a message to the crew - ask questions, share ideas, tell us what you think and we’ll reply on this weblog. Really, we would love to hear from you.
Send a message.
Continue reading "Talk to the crew" »
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Posted by Andrew at 09:21 AM, July 08, 2004
Some small drama this morning. Ship and crew docked at a secure wharf where they cleared customs and immigration, no problem. Then the Rainbow Warrior was supposed move to the more public Narayan wharf for a welcoming ceremony, but it turned out that the water there is too shallow for the RW’s 4.6 meter draft. Reporters and local activists end up at the Greenpeace Fiji office for sandwiches and juice. By the time they’re done snacking a new berth is found next to the naval base, and we all head down there to finally visit the Rainbow Warrior.
Continue reading "Arrival Suva" »
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Posted by Andrew at 10:08 PM, July 07, 2004
Welcome to the latest Rainbow Warrior tour weblog. This diary won’t be so much about the ship or it’s crew, but about Pacific Island communities and how fisheries issues affect their lives. That said, the Rainbow Warrior arrived in Suva, Fiji, this morning. I’m on my way to the wharf now for the welcoming ceremony.
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