Posted by Andrew via Email at 10:20 PM, August 30, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace |
Although not so excessive compared to some fishing practices, bycatch (non-target species) is still a serious issue for both longlining and (especially) purse seining. For longlining, the fish caught are sometimes on the hook for hours before the line is reeled in - meaning unwanted catch is often dead before it can be released.
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Continue reading "The struggle (video)" »
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| (C) Greenpeace |
The story in Pohnpei was much the same as everywhere - worries about the future of fishing. Industry representatives where especially outspoken. The first day there, James Morvick, Chair of the FSM Offshore Fishers Association, set the tone at the Greenpeace sponsored symposium...
"Some of us kill fish for a living, and we have to. We kill fish because people want to buy it, or have to buy it in order that they can sustain themselves. But we wish to kill the fish in a responsible manner. No one has a greater interest in the sustainability of these resources than the fishermen, and the people who depend upon these fishery stocks for their livelihood."
Continue reading "Flashback to Pohnpei voices" »
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 02:20 PM, August 27, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace |
We just passed another purse seiner. It was headed north, not fishing. Here are some of the other fishing vessels and fishermen we've seen on our way to the last stop of the tour (Honiara, Solomons). From what we have witnessed and heard so far, catches are small and fishermen are worried.
Slideshow
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 10:40 PM, August 24, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace |
Early this morning we came across a Fish Aggregating Device (FAD),
without any markers or radio beacons. Judging from the barnacles, Roger
guesses it has been floating around for about three months. Not a very
glamorous thing to look at. The main float appeared to be a rusty old
boiler or some such, made watertight. A bundle of sticks was tied to the
side to keep it floating upright, tow ring on top.
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Continue reading "FAD lost at sea" »
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 01:40 PM, August 23, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace |
Went out to document another purse seiner at work this morning. Each crew we've watched so far has it's own way of doing things. This one worked very quickly to bring in their net. To our surprise, when it was almost at the stage where they scoop the fish out, one of the fishermen jumped down into the net. I guess (hope) they could see there weren't any sharks in there. Anyway, first the one guy, and then another, jumped in to tie ropes to parts of the net so they could use their derricks to pull it into position for scooping.
There wasn't a whole lot of fish to there. I'd guess one full scoop net worth, with very little tuna in there. Not much to show for a hard morning's work. On the way back to the Rainbow Warrior, I realized we've seen a lot of purse seiners, visually and on radar. But we haven't seen a single one bring in a good catch yet.
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 10:40 PM, August 21, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace |
We were sitting in our boat, watching a very efficient fishing operation. The purse seine net was in the water, the buoys kept tight and the mouth of the net open by skiffs (small boats) while 12 men and three cranes winched it in. It was quite early in the whole process, and not many fish were coming on board, when we saw two dark objects breach beside us. Dolphins?...no... Whales! Our videographer (Wooly) and photographer (Roger) pulled on their snorkel gear, got in the water, and identified the false killer whales (just a name, they really are whales, and killers but not too dangerous). I was lucky enough to slip into the water too, and turned to see a whale swimming towards, then right under me. I could hear them whistling and chattering to each other as another glided gracefully beside me. Duck-diving I came a little closer to it.
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Continue reading "Whales" »
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 03:00 PM, August 20, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace |
In the past two days we've meandered along an 80-mile (129km) stretch of ocean. Along our way, we've seen eight purse seiners like our friend pictured here with the tree (which I'll explain in a sec). These can take maybe 5,000 tonnes of tuna per year (maybe more). So, as a rough guesstimate, in this small amount of time, in a small area, we've seen fishing boats with the capacity to take 40,000 tonnes of tuna out of the ocean every year (not counting discarded bycatch). The newer purse seiners that are now starting to work in this region easily have twice that capacity.
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Continue reading "Busy enough out here" »
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 01:00 PM, August 19, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace |
Nine PM, yesterday evening, we discovered a large ship 14 nautical miles to the southwest. A quick conference on the bridge and a decision was made to change course and investigate. As we steamed into a head-swell, the wind picked up and a spectacular squall blew in. Rain bucketed down, and blackened the sky while the 40-knot winds blew plumes of spray over the Warrior. The squall passed just as we arrived within three nautical miles, and identified the vessel as a purse seiner. We turned our engines off to drift with the seiner, waiting for dawn.
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Continue reading "Not much in the net" »
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 10:40 PM, August 18, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace |
Yep, there is little in the way of ocean debris that can escape our keen eyes. That is your basic floating log pictured there to the left, and the most exciting thing to happen to us all day long. Ok, it's more of a "plank". Now, I'm using the word "log" (or "plank") here for the benefit of our readers unschooled in the lingo of the tuna fishing industry. In their parlance, something like this is better known as a F. A. D. - that is a "fish aggregating device".
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Continue reading "Log found!" »
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 09:20 PM, August 16, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace |
"It's all about bargaining leverage," says James Movick, Chairman of the Offshore Fishers Association, explaining why the US government can require objective observers on almost all fishing boats in its waters, while Pacific island states are lucky to cover even five percent of the boats fishing in their Exclusive Economic Zones. Simply put, many foreign boats don't want the increased scrutiny, and their home countries have the political and economic mussel to back them up.
There's aid money, there's development projects, potential investments, joint ventures, and so on - a lot of leverage that can be applied against delegates from Pacific island states at international negotiations.
By signing this petition you give a little leverage back to the people of the Pacific. If you're from a country that buys fish from here, or operates boats in the region, then Greenpeace lobbyists will be able to tell delegates, "Look, even people from your own country want to crack down on pirate fishing". If you're from the Pacific island, this petition is one way to tell your delegates that you support them.
Sign the petition.
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p.s. You can also collect signatures from your friends. If you get the most online signatures, you win a very cool prize - a hand painted tapa cloth, made here in the islands - as a way for the people here to say thank you.
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| (C) Greenpeace |
This little guy was our hitchhiker most of yesterday. Looks like some kind of wading bird with a long beak to poke in the sand for whatever it eats. It was a rainy and windy so even though we were rolling around a fair bit, our ship still made a convenient resting spot for him. I guess he's migrating from somewhere to somewhere. I just hope we were heading in the right direction. If it was a fish, one of our several marine experts on board could probably tell me all about it, but unfortunately we didn't bring any ornithologists with us.
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 10:00 PM, August 15, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace |
It's purse - same as a lady's purse - because of the bag like shape of the net. Seine because the net hangs vertically, with floats at the top and weights at the bottom. The ends are drawn around together to encircle the fish. By "super" we mean "really big" - basically anything with a helicopter deck - usually over 70 meters (230 feet) long. By "super super" we mean "really really big". The Cape of Good Hope, a locally flagged vessel docked next to us in Pohnpei, can carry 2,600 tons of fish in it's hold, is one of the biggest fishing vessel currently working in the Western Pacific, but it will still be out classed by the super super seiners we expect to soon see in the region.
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Continue reading "Purse seiners, super seiners and their bigger brothers " »
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 10:40 PM, August 09, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace |
We're going to be busy here. On our way in we passed six purse seine fishing ships transhipping (transferring) tuna onto reefers (refrigerator ships). We docked two spots down from another purse seiner - and yet another passed us while we were waiting for the customs officials to finish processing our paperwork. Yep, got a lot going on here.
Waiting to welcome us was the family of Hayhow Daniel Nanoto. They brought garlands for everyone on the crew. We were really touched. I'll say more on the story of Hayhow another time, when I can tell it properly.
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Continue reading "Arrival Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia" »
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 10:20 PM, August 08, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace |
"It's very easy, you just take the hook out, and release it," explains Bill, who works on a line troller. We've been talking about three different industrial tuna fishing techniques: line trolling, long lining and purse seining.
The kind of ship Bill works on has fishing lines, up to 18 feet (5.4 meters) long attached to booms that fold down to a horizontal position. On the end of the lines is a selection of lures. The lines are attached to a bell. When fish pull the lines, the bell rings and the crew rushes out to pull in their catch.
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 12:20 PM, August 07, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace |
Honestly, I just don't know what is going on with the hair on this tour. It's like there's a madman with hair clippers stalking the ship. We've got 14 different nationalities on board, with different religions, eating habits, cultures and fashion sensibilities - so why is everyone getting the same haircut?
OK, we have a few other things in common too. We all want sustainable equity for the people of the Pacific. We want a healthy ocean ecosystem, a healthy Earth. We think people are (at best) stewards of our planet; at worst, tenants who aren't smart enough not to trash their own home. And of course, all of us are dedicated to the principles of non-violent direct action - although sometimes I wish we could go just ONE day without someone quoting Gandhi (hey, wait. he was a no-hair!).
So, maybe the length of our hair isn't important. Maybe the important thing is that you can't regulate sustainable fishing if some people are ignoring the rules. Maybe the important thing is that Pacific Island states lose far more income to pirate fishing than they make from fishing fees and licenses.
Or maybe the important thing is to cut down on wind resistance, and I reckon we've put on at least half a knot of speed since the haircuts. Now, if we could only do something about Siti...
All the crew profiles
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Posted by Andrew at 11:06 AM, August 06, 2004
(C) Greenpeace/Natalie Behring |
"Imagine if you will that our Exclusive Economic Zone (the 200 nautical mile range of our national border) is like a big house. We want it to be clean, we want to know who is going in and who is going out. Unfortunately there are those who come in without our knowledge and cause damage. It's a very big house, and we have an expensive commodity - tuna, so chances are that operators will come in and take it without our knowledge."
This is Glen Joseph's apt description of pirate fishing at a seminar
organised by Greenpeace on Tuesday night (August 3). As Deputy
Director of the Marshall Islands Marine Resources and Agriculture
Department (MIMRA) he has been involved in developing policies
and regulations to address this serious and thorny problem.
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Marshall Islands slideshow
Continue reading "Pirate fishers - controlling the 'uninvited guests'" »
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Posted by Andrew via Email at 07:00 PM, August 02, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace |
At about 02:00 last night (Sunday morning), Phil was sitting on deck watching them unload the cargo/passenger ship next to us, and the passengers on the dock. Some of them were sleeping, but most of them were just standing around. Suddenly, they gathered at the edge of the dock.
Apparently, the three-year old boy was sound asleep next to his grandmother when he rolled over and off the dock. Tojo, a sailor from the Boken EP, jumped in to save him, but by the time he got the child back on the dock the boy showed no signs of life. Witnesses say that Tojo then picked the kid up by the legs (to get the water out), and carried him down the dock.
Continue reading "Life saved" »
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