Greenpeace Launches Campaign to Save Endangered Southern Bluefin

["Greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org>]

GREENPEACE LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO SAVE ENDANGERED SOUTHERN BLUEFIN
TUNA 
MV Arctic Sunrise to depart Lyttleton this Thursday 


Lyttleton Harbour, Christchurch, 25th March -- Greenpeace is to
launch an international campaign calling for the immediate
suspension of the Southern bluefin tuna fishery tomorrow,
Wednesday 26th March.

The campaign will be launched at a public meeting on board the
MV Arctic Sunrise at the Port of Lyttleton tomorrow night at
7.30pm.

The Southern bluefin tuna is a critically endangered species and
a special part of the marine ecosystem. The Southern
bluefin tuna fishery kills thousands of albatrosses and
petrels each year, inadvertently hooking and drowning them on
longlines. 

Industrial fishing operations in the southern oceans are
setting thousands of kilometres of lines and millions of
hooks, 24 hours a day. Southern bluefin tuna has been reduced to
less than 5% of its original population size in just three
decades. The situation is so severe that the International
Union for the Conservation of Nature recently listed the
 
Southern bluefin tuna as 'critically endangered' on its Red List
of species at risk.

The Greenpeace vessel MV Arctic Sunrise will set sail from
Lyttleton later this week for the southern oceans to document
this destructive fishery first-hand.

"The magnificent Southern bluefin tuna is clearly on the verge
of collapse, yet the political will does not exist to suspend
the fishery. The New Zealand government continues to allow
overfishing for Southern bluefin tuna, just for dollars," said
Greenpeace Ocean Ecology campaigner, Cristina Mormorunni. 

"It is imperative that the Southern bluefin fishery is
suspended immediately. It is outrageous that the Government
allows a fishery for an endangered species to continue.
Greenpeace is heading out to sea to document the carnage in this
unsustainable fishery," Mormorunni added.

Conservative estimates suggest that in the Japanese southern
oceans longline fishery alone, a minimum of 44,000 albatrosses
are killed each year. New Zealand is home to more species of
albatross than anywhere else in the world. The New Zealand
black-browed albatross, the Auckland Islands wandering
albatross, the grey petrel and the grey-headed albatross are
particularly at risk.

Greenpeace has sent a letter to the Minister of Fisheries
asking him to suspend the Southern bluefin tuna fishery
immediately.


WHAT: 'EMPTY SEAS, EMPTY FUTURE' PUBLIC MEETING
WHEN: WEDNESDAY 26TH MARCH AT 7.30PM 
WHERE: ON BOARD ARCTIC SUNRISE, BERTH 2, LYTTLETON HARBOUR 
SPEAKERS: Cristina Mormorunni and Denise Boyd, Ocean Ecology
campaigners for Greenpeace New Zealand and Greenpeace
Australia

For further information, please contact Cristina Mormorunni or
Denise Boyd on 021 623 286 or Glyn Walters on 09 630 6317 or 025
931 363.