Removing a Weapon of Mass Ecological Destruction The Hauling Continues. As the “Bob Barker” continues to pursue the Nigerian flagged poacher “Thunder” northward, the “Sam Simon” some 1200 nautical miles to the southeast continues to haul in the illegally set gillnet. After three days of hauling, there is now 20,000 meters of line and net on the deck of the “Sam Simon” and the crew continue to work around the clock in four hour shifts with the retrieval. The crew have no idea how long this single net is. They have half of it on board, maybe even a quarter, they will not know the actual length until the last of the net is retrieved. The net has to be hauled up from a depth of 2 kilometres. The galley crew are operating 24 hours a day to keep the deck shifts fed, and warm with tea and coffee and the medical officer has been proscribing pain-killers for stiff neck and back pains. The bridge team are doing 4 hours on deck, then four hours on the bridge and eight off, then back to the cycle again. Captain Siddharth Chakavarty reports that his crew are all in great spirits and happy to be hauling in this weapon of mass ecological destruction. Captain Peter Hammarsted reports that the “Thunder” is moving slowly northward without any defined destination. In 2003, the Australian government ship “Southern Supporter” caught the Uruguayan toothfish poacher Viarsa in the same waters some 2,500 miles southwest of Australia’s Heard Island. That chase lasted 20 days and Australia requested and received help from a South African and British ship that joined in the chase. At the time Ian Macdonald, then Australias Fisheries Minister, said that his Government was determined to send a message to smugglers. Its a very expensive operation, but its very important to Australia for a number of reasons, Mr. Macdonald said. Our sovereignty is at stake, the Patagonian toothfish is a very rare and valuable species, and the illegal fishing in the Southern Ocean we believe is part of a criminal conspiracy. Things have changed dramatically since 2003. Today Australia’s government does not seem to be interested in protecting Australian sovereignty or the Antarctic toothfish from criminals. Instead of support, the Australian government has responded very negatively with Tasmanian Senator Dick Colbeck saying, “the government did not need Sea Shepherds help in ridding Australian waters of illegal fishing vessels like “Thunder”. The Australian government does not support and is in no way associated with the activities of Sea Shepherd and does not condone any dangerous or unlawful acts at sea. No one should be taking the law into their own hands - the law of the sea must be paramount for all parties in all circumstances. Of course if Australia were actually using their ships to protect the fisheries instead of harassing environmental and political refugees, Sea Shepherd would not need to be doing this campaign. And if the “Thunder” is breaking the law with impunity, why is Australia so upset that Sea Shepherd is intervening to stop the criminal activity in the Southern Ocean? In 2003, the Australian government spent two million dollars in a 20-day pursuit that ended unsuccessfully. This season, Sea Shepherd, with a much smaller budget captured an entire set net and chased the “Thunder” from the Southern Ocean. The chase has been ongoing for two weeks and it looks like Sea Shepherd will pass the record for longest pursuit of a poacher at sea. If there is a law but there is no sheriff in town, it becomes the responsibility of concerned citizens to enforce the law. The “Thunder” is listed by Interpol as the most notorious of the Southern Ocean poaching vessels. Sea Shepherd has intercepted and shut down the criminal operations of this ship and it’s crew of pirates. Sea Shepherd does not expect a medal or a commendation from any government for this intervention and it looks certain there will be no assistance forth coming, but the least the politicians can do in the face of their own lack of involvement or concern is to keep their criticisms to themselves. If they have not got the courage or the decency to act against illegal fishing themselves, they should dispense with their attacks and allow Sea Shepherd to do the job they refuse to do. Photo: The Sam Simon in the Southern Ocean. The positions of the Bob Barker and the Thunder
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 22:18:39 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015