Greenpeace launches first public pirate fishing vessel ‘list of shame’

Rome, Italy, 7 March 2007 - Greenpeace today launched a first global
database of blacklisted, illegal fishing vessels, in a bid to tackle the
huge problem of illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing, a $9
billion rogue industry which is having a devastating effect on fish
stocks and biodiversity in some of the most ecologically important areas
of the world’s oceans.

The Greenpeace database (http://oceans.greenpeace.org/blacklist), which
was launched at the meeting of the committee on Fisheries of the Food
and Agriculture Organisations (FAO) in Rome, aims to publicly identify
vessels which are involved in so-called ‘pirate fishing’, to expose the
lack of action by the authorities to prevent the illegal trade.

Today, Greenpeace also released a report (2) showing that the attempts
at voluntary measures to curb pirate fishing by governments have had
little effect on the levels of illegal fishing in some of the poorest
and most desperate areas of action in the world, particularly the west
coast of Africa.

"The fact that Greenpeace has to publish a global database of
blacklisted illegal fishing vessels demonstrates clearly just how little
concrete action states have taken to stop this pillage of our oceans,"
Sari Tolvanen of Greenpeace International. "What’s needed now is an
official body to take charge of the policing of the worlds’ oceans and
make publicly available the information of both illegitimate and
unlicensed fishing vessels. Until this happens, we have little hope of
stopping the devastation which pirate fishing brings."

The Greenpeace report shows that six years after the member countries of
the FAO approved an International Plan of Action to curb illegal
fishing, the problem is very far from being solved. It includes evidence
gathered last year when the Greenpeace ship Esperanza, spent two months
documenting the activities of foreign fleets off the coast of Guinea
Conakry (3). That investigation discovered that almost half of the 92
fishing vessels encountered in Guinea’s waters were fishing illegally,
or linked to illegal fishing activities. It has been estimated that
sub-Saharan Africa loses around $1 billion a year due to the activities
of such illegal trawling fleets.

"The measures needed to stamp out pirate fishing are well known. Action
is required at all levels of the chain of custody, from the net in the
water to the fish on the shelves of supermarkets", said Sebastian
Losada, Greenpeace Oceans campaigner. "International cooperation,
binding laws on port control, as well as a global register of fishing
vessels and adequate sanctions are among the tools that Governments need
to put in place to act against the pirate fleets that are literally
stealing the food of some of the poorest people in the world and
destroying our marine ecosystems".

Greenpeace campaigners attending the United Nations fisheries meeting in
Rome demanded that governments must translate the existing voluntary
frameworks and international initiatives into hard law. The
international environmental organisation also demanded that the special
requirements of developing countries in fighting illegal fishing be
taken into account.

Contacts

Sebastian Losada, Greenpeace Spain Oceans Campaigner, +34 626998254
Sari Tolvanen, Greenpeace International Oceans Campaigner, in Rome.
+31655125480

(1) http://oceans.greenpeace.org/blacklist
(2) "Witnessing the plunder 2006. How illegal fish from West African
waters finds its way to the EU ports and markets", available at
www.greenpeace.org
(3) The Esperanza documented pirate fishing in West Africa as part of
the Defending Our Oceans expedition, a 15-month expedition, the biggest
the organisation has ever undertaken, to show the threats to the oceans
and outline solutions to the oceans environmental crises.
http://blacklist.greenpeace.org/