Blog: Oceans

Buoys halt trawlers

Posted by darren - 9 March 2005 at 12:59pm - Comments

Trawler crew remove a Greenpeace buoy from their net

Our activists have just attempted to halt two UK dolphin-killing pair trawlers - the Ocean Dawn and the Sunrise - from fishing by attaching large buoys to their net.

Pair trawlers are responsible for the deaths of thousands of dolphins in the Channel every year. The dolphins are caught and drowned in the huge net dragged between two vessels.

Article tagged as: dolphins, esperanza, oceans, pair trawling

Dead dolphin found

Posted by darren - 22 February 2005 at 4:49pm - Comments

Dead dolphin found by our ship, MV Esperanza

We've just found a dead dolphin bearing the tell tale signs of being killed in a large fishing net, floating 18 miles south of Plymouth.

Observers onboard our ship, MY Esperanza, spotted the dolphin at 9.10am and, after battling gale force winds, were eventually able to bring the dolphin onboard.

Article tagged as: bycatch, cetaceans, dolphins, pair trawling

Esperanza sets sail to protect dolphins

Posted by darren - 17 February 2005 at 6:20pm - Comments

MV Esperanze sets sail

Our ship, the MY Esperanza, has just set sail from Falmouth to investigate dolphin deaths in the English Channel.

Every year hundreds of dolphins are killed by pair trawlers and other destructive fishing - their corpses are washing up on beaches in south west England right now.

Article tagged as: cetaceans, dolphins, esperanza, oceans, pair trawling, sea bass

Cetaceans and pelagic trawl fisheries in the Western Approaches of the English Channel

Publication date:

21 February, 2005

Summary report of the 2004 WDCS/Greenpeace winter survey

Summary
A joint WDCS/Greenpeace cetacean survey using conventional line-transect techniques and trialling other survey methodologies, including acoustic detection, carried out between 21 January and 1 March 2004 in the Western Approaches of the English Channel.

Download the report:

Cetaceans and pelagic trawl fisheries in the Western Approaches of the English Channel

Article tagged as: bycatch, cetaceans, overfishing, reports, whaling

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Government in the dock over dolphin deaths

Posted by darren - 10 February 2005 at 6:30pm - Comments

Dead Dolphin in the Channel

We've just launched a legal challenge against the government to help save dolphins from being caught and killed in large fishing nets.

Our legal team has filed papers in the High Court seeking a ban on all fishing boats from pair trawling for sea bass within 200 miles of the UK. This type of fishing involves two boats dragging a huge net between them. Last year, government observers witnessed UK pair trawlers catching and killing 169 dolphins.

Article tagged as: bycatch, cetaceans, dolphins, pair trawling

EU pushes cod towards extinction

Posted by darren - 23 December 2004 at 12:27am - Comments

We've slammed the European Union's new fishing quotas, which will push cod closer to extinction in British waters.

Under pressure from Tony Blair's government, EU ministers ignored scientific advice calling for a halt to cod fishing for the third year in a row. They also threw out proposals to close some fishing grounds to protect cod stocks.

Article tagged as: cod, EU, marine reserves, north sea

Marine reserves: Royal Commission report calls for action

Posted by darren - 7 December 2004 at 3:57pm - Comments

Catch from trawling on the Dogger Bank, North Sea

A new report by the influential Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) has backed our call for a network of large-scale marine reserves - essentially national parks, but at sea.

Article tagged as: esperanza, marine reserves, north sea

Japan's fleet sets sail

Posted by darren - 11 November 2004 at 9:00am - Comments

Japanese whalers haul in minke whale

Japan's 'research' whaling fleet has set sail for the Antarctic again to kill more whales in the name of 'science'.

This is the eighteenth year of Japanese whale hunting, thinly disguised as "scientific research". In that time over 6,000 Antarctic minke whales have been killed.

Article tagged as: IWC, japan, whaling

Defending the North Sea

Posted by darren - 10 August 2004 at 12:12pm - Comments

Seals in the Wadden Sea, North Sea

The North Sea is in crisis after years of human activity - it is now among the most degraded seas in the world. Overfishing has caused fish stocks to collapse and left seabirds facing mass starvation. Other activities such as oil, sand and gravel extraction, waste dumping and chemical pollution have also caused devastation.

Article tagged as: esperanza, marine reserves, north sea, overfishing

Marine Reserves

Publication date:

13 July, 2004

Summary

This report describes the multiple threats now jeopardising the marine life and ecology of the North Sea and Baltic Sea. It proposes an approach to countering these threats involving the establishment of networks of large-scale marine reserves in which fishing and other extractive activities are prohibited. Finally, it considers what progress has already been made towards the effective conservation of the North and Baltic Seas, and assesses the opportunities towards that goal afforded by recent political developments.

Download the report: