Activists onboard the Greenpeace vessel "Arctic Sunrise" confronted Italian fishing ''pirates'' in the Mediterranean Sea and confiscated almost 2km of illegal driftnet containing dead undersized bluefin tuna and a small sea turtle that was later released alive, a press release states.
The "Arctic Sunrise" crew came across the Italian fishing vessel "Diomede II", fishing with 8-10km of driftnet in international waters approximately 50km from the coast of Sicily, Italy. The crew had covered the vessel's name and registration number to avoid being identified. According to Greenpeace, "Diomede II" is licensed only to fish with longline or anchored nets, and only within 15km of the coast. The "Arctic Sunrise" is now following "Diomede II" towards its home harbour, and Greenpeace has requested that the coastguard confiscate the illegal driftnet and catch.
Driftnets are huge floating nets that were banned by the United Nations and the European Union because they indiscriminately trapped and killed thousands of whales, dolphins and turtles in the Mediterranean each year. Despite the bans, driftnet fleets from Italy and other Mediterranean countries are still fishing – Italian authorities continue to confiscate hundreds of kilometres of driftnet each year, says Greenpeace.
“Bans are useless if they are not enforced,” said Alessandro Gianni of Greenpeace Italy. “Italian and EU authorities must end this shameful practice and adopt strong European Union laws to ban pirate fishing vessels from access to European ports and funds. It is a scandal that Greenpeace is still finding newly built vessels fishing with driftnets, known to indiscriminately trap and kill protected species, more than a decade after driftnets were banned.”
The European Commission has proposed new laws that would blacklist fishing vessels involved in illegal practices. But, the organisation says, Italy and other member states are seeking to water down those laws.
