Gotcha!

Picture the scene: a pitch black, moonless calm night off the coast of Sicily, a few miles of driftnet in the water visible on the radar, two Greenpeace inflatables pulling the damn thing back to the Arctic Sunrise, equipped with a net hauler and a crew keen to get it on board. Cue Sicilian fishermen: they realise what is happening and start hauling their net in from the other end. The scene is frenzied, both teams racing to get as much of the net on board as possible - and it has something comical.

When the fishermen's vessel gets close to the Sunrise, we cut the net and let them have the rest of it. That frees the Diomede II, the pirate fishing boat in question to pursue the inflatables through the dark night. The angry fishermen have provisionally covered the name of their boat and armed themselves with cans of tuna and baked beans, beer bottles and various other missiles which they proceed to throw at us, missing us narrowly on several occasions. A game of cat and mouse ensues, lasting into the early hours of the morning before we make it back onto the Sunrise.

The mood there is good: what the busy activists on board managed to secure is nearly two kilometres of illegal driftnet, a few dead Tuna and a small Sea Turtle which barely survived the whole escapade. We spend the best part of the first night stacking the net, cataloguing the catch and media on board prepping the pictures for the morning's news release.

On day 2, we follow the Diomede II into port near Taormina. Giardini Naxos is a picturesque spot underneath Mount Etna, with tourists and now also irate fishermen. The Italian coast guard, notified in the early morning hours finally shows up in the afternoon. Carabinieri police have arrived to question the Diomede crew, and by the late afternoon the slow workings of the local bureaucracy have found their way onto the Sunrise. With the coast guard boat nearby, Greenpeace is asked to hand the confiscated nets back to the fishermen for lack of alternative transport options. The stage is set for the farce: the same fishermen who pelleted us the night before are now standing on the deck of a smaller boat asking for their net to be given back to them. Upset ensues aboard the Sunrise, raised arms and voices, lots of swearing and shouting and seemingly helpless coast guard officials who neither want to be there, nor deal with the situation eventually find a solution. Under threat of arrest for non-cooperation, we are asked to haul the net back onto the fishermen's boat, but the coast guard is officially responsible for its safekeeping. It makes me laugh, in a sarcastic kindof way.

We follow the fishermen and coast guard boat back into port, but are not allowed to take pictures or video. We watch the Diomede crew unload the evidence and stacking it on the pier, all the while chatting to the coast guard officials and sending thinly veiled threats in our direction. Can you imagine anywhere else where the suspect would be allowed to handle the evidence of his crime while at the same time making threats against the accusers? I can, but it's not the sort of place you want to be, really.