'No Fish, No Future'

2008-05-27 21:26

Auckland - Greenpeace environmental activists in the South Pacific tried but failed on Tuesday to prevent a Spanish fishing vessel from harvesting a major tuna haul.

Greenpeace was protesting in the South Pacific in recent weeks as concerns grew about alleged overfishing of tuna.

Some environmentalists said the situation was damaging ocean ecosystems and making scarce a key food source for many Pacific islanders.

The international conservation group said it took its latest action after several days of following the Albatun Tres - which Greenpeace claimed was the world's largest tuna fishing vessel - near the island nation of Kiribati.

'No Fish, No Future.'

Greenpeace photographs showed activists laying out a 25m-long floating banner that read, "No Fish, No Future." The banner missed being caught in the huge net, which activists had hoped would stop it from being hauled in.

But the net full of skipjack tuna and some sharks was pulled aboard the Spanish vessel, Greenpeace ocean campaigner Lagi Toribau said by satellite phone from the group's ship Esperanza.

The fishing craft "was caught deploying its net inside Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, a proposed marine protected area", a Greenpeace statement said.

The Spanish fishing company could not immediately be reached for comment.

'Not enough fish in the sea'

Greenpeace said the Albatun Tres could net more than 3 000 tons of tuna in a single trip.

"The Spanish owner of this super, super seiner (net) vessel is looking to bring even more vessels to fish in the region," Toribau said.

"Vessels of this size cannot be left to plunder and empty out the remaining tuna stocks and need to be taken off the water and scrapped immediately in order to address the overcapacity of the worlds tuna fleets," said Greenpeace spokesperson Sari Tolvanen.

"The Pacific tuna stocks are in decline and there simply isn't enough fish in the sea to fill the holds of these huge vessels," he said.

World's largest marine reserve

In February, Kiribati declared the Phoenix Islands Protected Area as the world's largest marine reserve. The California-size ocean wilderness area included pristine reefs and eight coral atolls teeming with fish and birds.

Kiribati hoped to complete the formal international establishment of the 410 500km² protected area by the end of this year, Environment Minister Tetapo Nakara had said at the time.

Previously unknown fish species

The area, about halfway between Hawaii and Fiji, had undersea mountains and some previously unknown fish species. It was in one of Earth's last intact oceanic coral archipelago ecosystems.

- AP