overfishing

I’m here in Bangkok at a gathering of hundreds of tuna business officials, policy-makers and even a few environmental advocates like myself. It’s been a long week of discussion about the future of the industry, including a lot about what we all call sustainability fish for the future.

It seems the captain of Britain’s largest fishing boat isn’t partial to a spot of tea, despite a kind invitation from John Vidal, Environment Editor of the Guardian, as he radioed the vessel from our ship the Arctic Sunrise, off the coast of Mauritania. (See for yourself in John’s video, above.)

 We’re currently following a stern trawler as it fishes. It’s not the biggest vessel out here, but, like many others it is fishing up and down where the shallow continental shelf meets deeper waters. That there is fish in these waters there is no doubt, and proved by the birds, whales and dolphins we encounter here, as well as the fishing vessels.

I’m out in the Atlantic Ocean, somewhere off Mauritania in West Africa, aboard the Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise. We’re here to document and expose the shocking overfishing of Africa’s coastal seas by huge fishing vessels from the EU and elsewhere.