According to a statement from Oceana, the Oceana Ranger catamaran was surrounded and immobilised by seven French fishing boats, who demanded the cameras with which their driftnetting activities had been photographed.
The arrival of two border-control and French Navy helicopters caused the attackers, who were fishing in international waters, to flee.
In the early Monday morning hours, a group of seven French driftnetters carried out a concerted attack on the Oceana Ranger fishery research vessel, which has been recording the activities of a fleet of about 80 French fishing boats using driftnets, about 5 to 8 km in length and known as thonailles, to catch tuna and swordfish in the Gulf of León.
These nets have been banned in the European Union since 2002 and in 2005, the French National Council itself repealed the decrees that authorised the use of these driftnets which had been prohibited by EU regulations. According to Oceana, since then, these boats have been operating not only illegally, but also outside of the protection the French authorities granted them in 2003.
The statement says that throughout the attack, which lasted over an hour, the Oceana Ranger’s crew stayed calm and did not respond, not even verbally, to these provocations, concentrating instead their efforts on avoiding collisions with the other boats. The French maritime authorities were informed of the situation by radio and sent two helicopters to the area. With the arrival of the helicopters, the driftnetters fled.
Later, Oceana’s divers removed the ropes that were entangled in the vessel’s propellers and the Ranger continued its journey to the French port of Bastia, in Corsica.
“I am sure that by now the most intelligent thonnailler shipowners will have understood the huge mistake they made in perpetrating this savage attack on a research vessel, which had in no way interfered with their activities and had limited itself to collecting data and taking photos,” said Xavier Pastor, coordinator on board the Oceana Ranger. “If anyone still had any doubt about the illegality of the French driftnets, the brutal attempts by the fishermen to try to avoid at all costs that the general public and the authorities have a chance to contemplate the results of the driftnets is plain to see”.
