New Greenpeace-tuna fishermen clashes off Malta
Fresh clashes have been reported off Malta between tuna fishermen and Greenpeace.
The owner of the two French fishing vessels, Jean-Marie Avallone, told AFP that a fisherman was injured when the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise rammed a trawler.
But Greenpeace rejected that claim and said its ship had been trying to free tuna caught in cages and that it had turned around and sailed away as soon as it saw the two fishing boats heading towards it.
"There was no contact between our militants and the crews of the fishing boats. And therefore no injured people," said Isabelle Philippe, spokeswoman for the group in France.
Meanwhile, the Federation of Malta Aquaculture producers reported a clash between Greenpeace activists and Spanish fishermen who, it said, were carrying out lawful fishing activities.
"This attack has resulted in loss to property and injuries among those involved. Activists tried to tear a net containing fish which had been caught by Spanish fishermen. The fishermen were acting within their rights and were doing nothing to provoke attention by these activists except for the fact that they were carrying exercising their trade." the federation said.
The federation condemned the Greenpeace attacks.
"Apart from subjecting both its activists and fishermen to unnecessary risks Greenpeace seems bent on causing economic loss to legitimate operators. Greenpeace cannot pretend that such actions are measured and / or peaceful. They are pure and simply designed to cause economic loss with violence against innocent operators."
Fishermen on Friday hurled a grappling hook at a Greenpeace dinghy trying to free bluefin tuna from their nets off Malta, injuring an activist whose leg was pierced by the hook.
Yesterday, conservation society Sea Shepherd has said it would launch a "Blue Rage" campaign against the poaching of threatened bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean.
In a reaction, the federation said that it recognized the need to eradicate all incidences of Illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing and it supported without reservation ongoing efforts at national, EU and international level to combat this phenomenon. Illegal fishing robbed those who followed the law from the fruits of their legitimate business and may, in extreme case,s pose a threat to the continued sustainability of the fishery.
"Having said this, we do not believe that the incidence of illegal and unregulated fishing in the Mediterranean is anywhere close to the extent claimed by the Sea Shepherds. These claims which are based on mere suppositions and are not backed up by facts, are obviously exaggerated and clearly intended to shape public outrage," the federation said.
It stressed that Blue Fin Tuna Fishing carried out this year by the Fleets of the European Union is highly regulated and sustainable, having been set according to scientific study. All purse seiners carry international observers on board and are subjected to an unprecedented level of controls. The purse seiners are required to fish according to scientifically set quotas and the available season has been reduced to only thirty days. This year’s season ends on the 14th June.
"We hope that the remaining few days will pass peacefully and uneventfully and that legitimate operators will suffer no further interference," the federation said.
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Marvin Mizzi
Jun 8th 2010, 17:52
It is unacceptable that Green peace are left free and obstruct these fisherman tryinf to earn their living!!!
S.Zammit
Jun 8th 2010, 19:35
I don't think you get the point here. Tuna is DECLINING, it is an ENDANGERED SPECIES. To continue...if it becomes EXTINCT it means we lose another species off this planet FOREVER.
If Tuna decrease then Fishermen will loose their jobs. So it only makes sense that they show respect and give the tuna some protection!We are emptying our Oceans!
See these links...See what is at stake here
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/health/22iht-tuna.4291357.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bluefin-tuna-stocks-threatened-cites-japan-monaco
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/oceans/endangered-tuna-message-finally-sinking-20090609
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6189975.stm
http://www.seashepherd.org/blue-rage/why-defend-bluefins.html
Hands up for Greenpeace. Keep it up:-)
S. Camilleri
Jun 8th 2010, 21:37
My heart weeps!!!! Its not the fisherman who are making the money here. It is corporations like major local fishery companies who are so short sighted they would sell their children (figuratively speaking ) if given the chance. They will vacuum dry the oceans like there is no tomorrow and when the tuna is gone ... they'll turn to something else.
Three cheers for Greenpeace .. disruption is the name of the game
David Caruana
Jun 8th 2010, 13:54
@N.Calleja
Tuna fishing is as legal as hunting in Malta is. There is no control and Malta is part of this:
"I flew one June morning with Eduardo Domaniewicz, an Argentine-American pilot who has spotted for tuna for French and Italian purse seiners since 2003. Riding shotgun was Domaniewicz's spotter, Alfonso Consiglio. They were combing the waters between Lampedusa and Tunisia, and they were not alone: Three other spotter aircraft were prowling illegally, relaying tuna sightings to some of the 20 purse seiners in the water below. (After two hours, high winds and choppy seas, which make it difficult both to see and net the first, forced the planes to return to Lampedusa and Malta."
http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/global-fish-crisis-article/
S. Camilleri
Jun 8th 2010, 19:29
Now I thought that Tuna Spotting was illegal !!! If so that makes the act of so called fishing for such tuna also illegal and any action to disrupt such practice is therefore completely legitimate.
David Caruana
Jun 8th 2010, 13:46
@ N.Calleja:
"Stocks of bluefin tuna have fallen by at least 85% since the industrial fishing era began. Bluefin quotas are set at a ludicrously high 13,500 tons by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), but realistically over 60,000 tons are killed every year. The scientific community believes bluefin tuna is at a high risk of fisheries and stock collapse in the Mediterranean Sea in less than 5 years. The quota is too high, it is not enforced, and there is insufficient political willpower to act – the same old story."
X'ha naghmlu jekk nibqghu bla kontroll u sa 5 snin ohra ma jkunx fadal bluefin tuna? Min ha jirrispondi ghal dan in-nuqqas umbaghad? Int?
M.Farrugia
Jun 8th 2010, 13:23
@N. Calleja. Nixtieq nistaqsik jekk waqt l-inkontru bejn il-Greanpeace u is-sajjieda franciza kontx prezenti? Jekk le kif taf li l-greenpace kienu li attakkaw u mhux is-sajjieda? Kif tak li kienu qed jistadu legalment. Nispera li inti mintix xi wiehed li tibla dak kollu li jghid il-gazetti li xi uhud minnhom ikollhom l-agenda taghhom. Sa fejn naf jiena il-greenpeace ma dahlux fil-kwistjoni tal-kacca illegali f'Malta allura ma tistax issejhilhom arroganti bhal BLM. Arroganti huma dawk li bhal nhar il-hadd waa nofs in-nhar spaaw fuq falkun f'Ta Qali u l-bierah fl-inhawi tal-Buskett sparaw u qatlu art in-nahal.
Anthony Formosa
Jun 8th 2010, 13:57
Sur Farrugia, jien nixtieq nistaqsik jekk int kont hemm waqt li l-greenpeace kienu qed jighnu lis-sajjieda bil-qabda taghhom, int ghalfejn tahseb li dawn l-attivisti kienu hemm? mhux biex ifixklu is-sajd legittimu, tiftakar meta ippruvaw jitlghu fuq il-bastiment tas-sajd u dabru xeba tajba? Rigward il-kacca illegali li semmejt, int kont hemm? u rajthom jisparaw? jew qieghed t'allega biss? Dawn l-attivisti huma arraoganti u dak u l'ghixien taghom u jigu jitmelhu min kemm jistghu jaghmlu hsara lil pajjiz taghna specjalment f'dawn il-mumenti difficli.
Jien la jien favur u lanqas kontra l-qbid tat-Tonn, imma nahseb li hemm bizzejjed xjentisti and esperti biex jiddeciedu, bl-istess argument dawk li huma kontra labort imisshom jidhlu u jwaqfu lisptarijiet jew jattakkaw lit-tobba.
David Caruana
Jun 8th 2010, 15:52
@ Anthony Formosa
1. "The scientific community believes bluefin tuna is at a high risk of fisheries and stock collapse in the Mediterranean Sea in less than 5 years."
2. Il-paragun tal-abort ma jaghmilx sens. Jekk dawk li qed jaqbdu t-tonn bla kontroll jibqghu sejrin hekk u jeqirdu t-tonn kollhu, kulhadd ha jbati - la jien u aqqas int m'hu ha jkollna tonn x'nieklu. Mill-banda l-ohra, jekk mara tqila tixtieq taghmel abort, dak huwa affariha - it-tarbija hija taghha u gisimha iktar u iktar taghha - jekk taghmel abort hi biss trid taffacca l-konsegwenzi u l-bqija tal-komunita' m'hi ha tbati xejn minn din l-azzjoni!
N.Calleja
Jun 8th 2010, 12:52
The Greenpeace crews are becoming as arrogant as their counterparts Birdlife. Isn't it arrogance to attakk a fisherman's trawler who is fishing legally? How are they left to do all this jeopardising the fishermen's livelihood? If it was illegal fishing it's ok....but
Anthony Formosa
Jun 8th 2010, 16:16
Sur Caruana, L-argument tieghi hu jekk dawn il-greenpeace ghandomx dritt ifixklu dritt legali irrispettivament jekk taqbel jew ma taqbilx. Ma rridx inkun egoist, inzertajt il-hut ma nhobbux u ghaliha jista jieqaf min ghada, imma trid tikkompensa lil dawn is-sajjieda jew tinstab alternattiva biex ma jbaghti hadd inkluz il-hut. Go l'Africa biex ma jkomplix isir qtil ta annimali bdew jokkompensaw lil (poachers) foqra li kienu qed jghixu min fuq dawn l-annimali li wara kollox kienu jinbighu fis-swieq Ewropej
David Caruana
Jun 8th 2010, 12:01
Please take a minute to know what can really happen if the Bluefin Tuna is not protected immediately:
http://www.seashepherd.org/blue-rage/why-defend-bluefins.html
A Borg
Jun 8th 2010, 11:58
Should make for an interesting season of Whale Wars .. or will it be Tuna Battles? Either way, it will bring in a good buck for Animal Planet.
G Gauci
Jun 8th 2010, 11:42
Call me naive or whatever. However, what the fishermen are doing is as far as I know legal. Imagine someone who's selling meat, another group, because they don't agree with meat production enter his/her shop and by force take his stock away. I believe that in this case, they are stealing and therefore should be prosecuted,
In this regards, parallel to the meat seller, the fishermen are only trying to catch Tuna as their livelihood and therefore anyone impeding them should be prosecuted.
Anyone wishing to protest the Tuna catching should protest not with them, but with who took the decision to open the season. For this reason any impediment to their work is, for me, considered illegaly and should be prosecuted. Patrol boats should be in place to catch and prevent this illegal act!
If they didn't get what they wanted when they failed to secure a tuna ban they should not act like children and try to "spoil" the "game" for who won the "rules".
a.sciberras
Jun 8th 2010, 11:32
where is the EU in all of this. Is not tuna fishing illegal?
Anthony Formosa
Jun 8th 2010, 11:00
Well done Greenpeace, CABS, BLM, keep on showing the rest of the world that tiny little Malta is the culprit of the mass killings of fish, birds, and perhaps the dinosaurs. If these are about to extinct why they are picking on Malta when other countries are catching maybe hundred times more, and if this extinction is true then why not increase the cost of tuna by ten times so that people will not afford to buy, or else instead of Brussels looking into their own salary increase they should have compensated the fishermen. Those who are against such fishing should avoid buying Tuna from the shelves.
Raymond Camilleri
Jun 8th 2010, 10:10
The Malta Federation of Millionaire Donors to the Nationalist and Labour Parties (a.k.a. Federation of Aquaculture) are a bunch of greedy people. Keep on going Greenpeace and be militant... whatever J Farrugia's and other chatterers of this world say...
victor caruana
Jun 8th 2010, 09:17
Who would you side with: one who tries to protect the environment even with his life or business man whose objective is to make profit even at the expense of your environment by killing living creatures to extinction?
m'hemmx tidwir mal-lewza.
victor rodenas
Jun 8th 2010, 10:00
If I vote for politicians(red,blue,green)and they allow the destruction of tuna, fresh water crabs...etc,then I am siding with the business man whose objective is to make a profit or for his own pleasure.
victor rodenas
Jun 8th 2010, 09:06
I think that this crusade between tuna fisherman and greenpeace activists will continue each day untill the 14 of June otherwise what was done these last few days would be in vain.Also, it will happen next year and the years after if there are still any blue fin tuna left to catch....The fisherman say it is legal,and it is.Greenpeace say it is legal because politicians are greedy(or words to that effect)...........but who put the politicians in power,....you and me,so after all it is our fault too what happens around us.I am in favour of the conservation of all fauna and flora too,greenpeace are here and we support them.....But what about our Islands.......Are we doing our utmost so that the fresh water crab will be saved from extinction.Still people are building in valleys,important habitats are being destroyed for ever,...are we doing the same as greenpeace are doing for the tuna.Permits are issued and habitats are destroyed.Shall we say Govt is greedy too...Soon,they will tell us that the Qabru(fresh water crab)is no more.If the Qabru could only talk he would say..................`oh,how I wish I was a blue fin tuna`........sob....sob....sob......Who knows, maybe both species will perish after all,time will tell.
J Farrugia
Jun 8th 2010, 09:53
dream on friend, dream on. we dont eat with dreams.
Joe Camilleri
Jun 8th 2010, 08:38
"no contact between our militants... "
I wonder why there is the word PEACE is in GreenPeace or if they know its meaning.
Moses Mula
Jun 8th 2010, 09:22
My friend, militant is not a dirty word as you make it sound. The definition of militant includes ready to fight, especialy for a cause. Even to achieve peace sometimes you have to you use force, as we can see if we take a look at history books. Now, if you carry a grudge for Greenpeace, that is another matter, but at least choose a better argument that can hold.
J Farrugia
Jun 8th 2010, 09:51
yes moses. militant is the dirtiest word in the vocabulary of all peacefull loving citizens. militant is dirty. leftist, anarchist, lawlessness.
Franco Farrugia
Jun 8th 2010, 10:11
It's 'Greenpeace' and not 'peace'. Perhaps you should google and see what Greenpeace have achieved during all these years of activity. Their actions are not, no, orthodox. But where are we going with orthodoxy, when it comes to the natural environment? Eh? Eh?