The Science
Patagonian toothfish are not the only species being decimated by pirate fishing vessels. The science team on board the Arctic Sunrise documents the impact pirate fishing has on a wide array of bird species in the Southern Ocean.Don't forget to feast your eyes on our Bird of the Week!

Longline Fishing
What is longline fishing and why is it so detrimental to a variety of wildlife?

Campaign Report
Track the progress of our campaign by checking out these periodic reports from Greenpeace's onboard campaign team.

Ship Log & Webcast
What's daily life like on a Greenpeace ship? How does the crew prepare for these dramactic actions? And just what is a bosun anyway? Get first hand accounts from our crew.

Last Year
In 1999 Greenpeace embarked on an expedition to expose pirate fishing in the Southern Ocean and caught the notorious, Spanish-owned pirate vessel Salvora illegally fishing in the French waters around Kerguelen Island. Here's an overview of that campaign...

Longline Fishing

The Southern Ocean toothfish pirates use fishing gear called longlines.

The primary fishing gear consists of an 8-12 kilometre main line anchored to the ocean floor at both ends with marked radio beacons for later recovery. Pirates use charts and onboard fish finding technology to find appropriate fishing depths for Patagonian toothfish. Many simply return to fishing grounds that have been productive in the past. The line, usually set from the stern of the vessel, is designed so that the thousands of baited hooks attached to the main line hang and float at the appropriate depths for toothfish (between 800-2,500 metres below the surface).

As these baited hooks are cast from the vessel, albatrosses and other seabirds dive for the bait and swallow it, hook and all to be pulled under the water and drowned.

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