We are cruising along a nearly flat sea with a rolling swell of about half a metre and the rippled diamond shapes on the surface indicating about 4 knots of breeze. Its only early, yet it is already 30 degrees centigrade, and I just put out the fishing line.

We are doing a fisheries campaign, and I have a fishing line out? Does this not fly in the face of what we are trying to achieve? In the campaign brief we are not telling people to stop fishing, but to keep unregistered and illegal boats out of the area; to keep the huge world fishing fleets from moving in and decimating what is left in the Pacific, an area that still has relatively abundant fish stocks.

Bycatch, a by-product of the huge commercial fleets fishing out the world's oceans, depletes fish stocks further. On this particular leg we witnessed large numbers of shark fins hanging to dry on lines across the decks of fishing vessels. The rest of the shark is thrown back, dead or dying.

While I was driving the Avon, a large RIB [rigid hulled inflatable boat] we use, back from having investigated some of these vessels, we were surfing big waves with huge flying fish to keep us company. I thought about the issue of having a fishing line out the back of the Rainbow Warrior. There is no bycatch, we only catch one at a time, which we eat and even the head and tail goes to make soup.

Tangaroa, the god of the sea, meant for us to eat fish, just not all of them. It will be a sad day when a father cannot take his son or daughter to fishing. We need to proactively create new marine reserves; we need to be aware of which fish are declining in numbers, and to not support those industries that continue to pursue these fish.

People also need to learn how to release a fish properly - by not touching the fish with dry hands, avoid touching the mouth and gill area (certain death for the fish), and ideally not lifting the fish from the water.

Tight lines,
Phil