GP Vessel Heads for Grand Banks

[The.Greenbase@gb.greenpeace.org]

>>  GREENPEACE VESSEL HEADS FOR GRAND BANKS  TO CONFRONT PIRATE   


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                    GREENPEACE PRESS RELEASE
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>>  GREENPEACE VESSEL HEADS FOR GRAND BANKS  TO CONFRONT PIRATE   
    SPANISH FISHING FLEET
 
OTTAWA, March 23,1995 (GP) A Greenpeace ship is on its way to the
nose of the Grand Banks to confront the European trawlers
plundering the turbot stocks.
 
The charter vessel Cape Mugford, a 155 foot stern trawler, set
sail from St. John's, Newfoundland at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday night.
On board were Kevin Jardine from Greenpeace Canada and Riki
Aguilar, Greenpeace Spain's fisheries campaigner.
 
The international environmental group, which is calling for a
moratorium on the fishery, plans to document and protest any
turbot fishing found. Greenpeace intends to step up the pressure
on the European Union at the opening of the UN Conference on
Fisheries this coming Monday. 
 
At the UN Conference, Greenpeace is calling for a legally binding
treaty to reduce overfishing and by-catch in both national and
international waters.
 
"It's scandalous that the EU is fishing beyond their agreed quota
only days before they attend a UN Conference designed to improve
conservation of straddling stocks like turbot." said Catherine
Stewart, Greenpeace Canada fisheries campaigner. "Greenpeace will
use every non-violent means at our disposal to stop the EU
fleet's destruction of the fishery and highlight the gap between
European rhetoric and the reality of their fishing practices."  
At the same time, Greenpeace in Ottawa, Brussels and Santiago
condemned the movement of European vessels into Chilean waters.  
"The Coastal fishermen in Chile have been involved in serious
confrontations with PescaChile, a subsidiary of the Spanish
fishing giant PescaNova" said Stewart. "Greenpeace and Chilean
coastal fishermen today are calling for immediate closure of
fishing access to European and Asian high seas fleets. The EU
must bring the Spanish fleets under control."
 
Greenpeace Chile reports that stocks of hake and pink eel are
already in critical condition and 70 percent of the hake caught
by the EU boats are undersize and thrown overboard dead. Now the
European Union and the Spanish corporations are pushing for more
access to fish stocks in the Southern Ocean. 
 
The first GP voyage to the Grand Banks took place in 1990, when
the Greenpeace ship Moby Dick protested Spanish and Portuguese
overfishing on the nose and tail. Fisheries campaigning by the
international environmental organization has been ongoing since
that time, in Canada and around the world.
 
ENDS 
 
For more information contact:
Catherine Stewart   Greenpeace Fisheries Campaigner   or
Steve Shallhorn     Greenpeace Canada Campaign Director
at (613) 562-1004   or
David Robbins       Information Office, Greenpeace Toronto
(416) 597-8408.