For the past two weeks, the Greenpeace ship Esperanza has been patrolling the Indian Ocean north of Mauritius. We ventured into an area known as the 'reefer triangle', a maritime no-man's land on the unregulated high seas where fishing vessels rendezvous with reefer ships to offload their catch of Yellowfin Tuna.
We witnessed several transhipments from Taiwanese longliners onto the Tuna Queen, a Panama-registered reefer operating for Japanese interests. The hauls disappearing in the Tuna Queen's frozen hold were always impressive: some fish as large as the men who caught them, and their quantity staggering. The prices these fish will fetch at the world's tuna auctions will be in the tens of thousands each. Although the quantity of fish transferred that we managed to document are only a tiny fraction of what gets caught in the Indian Ocean, so one can only conclude that tuna is a multi-billion Dollar business. Regulation is weak, monitoring almost impossible and the scope for abuse of catch quotas correspondingly high.
The crews of the longliners doing the fishing, however, receive only a pittance in comparison to what their catch brings in. Mostly of Indonesian, Cambodian or Vietnamese origin, these men are out at sea for at least a year before they see home again. Branding those who struggle to make ends meet as criminals seems harsh - recognising that there is a problem of overfishing and dwindling stocks however, is not.
In comparison with these fishermen, I feel lucky: after six weeks at sea, we are arriving in Mauritius, and I have three more weeks on this assignment in the Indian Ocean. More to come...
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