Home / Blog / Illegal driftnet vessels caught redhanded

June 20, 2006

Illegal driftnet vessels caught redhanded

BY: Enrique Talledo

Topics: 

 

Its 5.30 am and my companions Sole and Juan have just woken me up to tell me that there is an illegal driftnet vessel nearby.

Still half asleep I get the video camera ready to catch the moment on film; a “moment” that lasts some 3 hours as several kilometres of nets are pulled in.

The whole crew saw how 5 swordfish, 2 ocean sunfish and several members of the carangidae family showed up in the so-called “death net”.

Just when we thought our investigative voyage would come to a close without any further surprises, at sundown, we intercepted another boat with driftnets a few miles off Cetraro Marina. This time the net was being dropped. On coming up closer, we saw that the boat did not even have a ship’s letter.

Another day on which we on board the Ranger witness how prevailing regulations are failing to be observed. As with many other seas, the Mediterranean is suffering from unlimited over-fishing, to which driftnets, which are currently prohibited, are making a substantial contribution to the fall-off in the number of species that are essential to the development of marine life.

I am 100% behind Oceana, which with its courageous campaign, is trying to put an end to illegal driftnet vessel fishing in the Mediterranean.