NOTORIOUS SPANISH "PIRATE" APPEARS BEFORE INTERNATIONAL COURT AFTER PLUNDERING ANTARCTIC MARINE LIFE

5 April 2001

Hamburg - A notorious pirate fishing vessel, chased by Greenpeace in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica last year [1] and caught fishing illegally for Patagonian toothfish/Chilean sea bass by the French authorities, is before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) attempting to gain release from French custody.

The Grand Prince, owned by the Spanish company Noycan but registered to flag of convenience country Belize [2], was caught fishing illegally for the threatened Patagonian toothfish (called Chilean sea bass in US markets) on December 2000. The latest of many arrests, the Grand Prince was escorted to La Réunion, where a French court set a bond of over 1.7 million Euros for the release of the vessel. Belize is arguing for the bond to be lowered to 206,149 Euros.

Flag of convenience fishing is rife in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica. Fishing companies buy flags from countries such as Belize, Panama, Seychelles, Vanuatu and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to avoid international fishing rules and any control of their activities by their home countries. France has caught and arrested close to 20 vessels in the waters surrounding its sub-Antarctic territories, many of which flew flags of convenience.

The toothfish population has been brought to the brink of collapse in the six years since pirate longliners began fishing for the prized fish. In just a few years, the toothfish stocks around Prince Edward Island and Marion Islands were fished close to commercial extinction. An estimated 330,000 seabirds, including endangered species of albatross, were caught and killed as bycatch in four years by pirate fishing vessels.

"Belize routinely lets fishing vessels flying its flag breaking international fisheries rules and regulations with impunity," said Matthew Gianni, Ocean Campaign Coordinator for Greenpeace International. "Now, to add insult to injury, Belize has the gall to come before the tribunal trying to lower the fines these boats face on the rare occasions they get caught. This is outrageous." [3]

"This toothfish pirate will clearly do whatever it takes to get its hands on this fish called 'white gold' because of the high price it fetches in world markets," said Gianni. "But why is Belize supporting it? And why hasn’t Spain, the company’s home country and a member of the regional organisation responsible for conserving Southern ocean marine life, done anything to stop it?"

Greenpeace believes that the tribunal must take the gravity of the environmental consequences of this fishery into consideration when assessing whether the bond set by France was "reasonable".

"The bonds and fines set by French courts are one of the few real deterrents to pirate vessels operating in a fishery where the environmental stakes are extremely high," said Gianni. "Greenpeace hopes that they will not continue to line up at the doors of the tribunal to remove this financial obstacle to their plundering of the Antarctic marine environment."

The Secretary General of the United Nations has called the prevalence of illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing "one of the most severe problems currently affecting world fisheries." The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a series of resolutions calling on countries to exercise control over the activities of fishing vessels flying their flag. In March of this year, 114 nations agreed to an International Plan of Action to combat Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing. Among other things, they stressed the need to impose sanctions of sufficient severity to deter pirate fishing vessels from illegal fishing and deprive them of the benefits of their fishing. [4]

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Matthew Gianni, Greenpeace International, mobile +31 6 29 00 11 35 (in Hamburg)
Luisa Colasimone, Greenpeace Communication, mobile +31 6 21 29 69 20 (in Amsterdam)

[1] The Greenpeace vessel MV Arctic Sunrise found the Grand Prince inside the Kerguelen EEZ on 4 March 2000. Greenpeace photographed the vessel from helicopter on 4/3/00 at 47deg 48.9' S 73 deg 41.5' E. Upon sighting Greenpeace, the Grand Prince immediately changed course, increased its speed and fled. Greenpeace pursued the vessel to the limits of the area managed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). The Grand Prince had sailed from the notorious toothfish pirate port of Mauritius on 10 February 2000 where it had landed a catch of Patagonian toothfish. On the 22 April 2000, it returned to Mauritius where it landed another 150 tonnes of toothfish.

Greenpeace mounted two expeditions in 1998/1999 and 2000 to the Southern Ocean to find and expose pirate toothfish vessels at sea and in the main pirate port of Mauritius. For more information on the expedition and photos of the Grand Prince found at sea and in Mauritius: www.greenpeace.org/~oceans/southernoceans/expedition2000/index.html

[2] Grand Prince Owner: Noycan Address: Poligono Industrial A.,Borno, Moaña, Pontevedra, Spain [Source: www.seasearcher.com ]

Belize is the most notorious flag of convenience fishing country. According to a recent report by the UN FAO, the number of fishing vessels flying the flag of Belize has jumped to 427 from 158 vessels over the past several years. Greenpeace estimates that there are over 1300 fishing vessels flying flag of convenience worldwide, most of which are flagged to Belize (which tops the list), Honduras, Panama, St Vincent & the Grenadines.

[3] This is the third time a flag of convenience country representing a foreign pirate fishing company operating in the Southern Ocean has come before the tribunal to ask it to substantially lower a bond set by a French court. In the first two cases brought by Panama and Seychelles, the tribunal substantially lowered the bonds.

The first pirate vessel to win a lesser bond from ITLOS, the Panama-flagged Camouco, is now renamed Arvisa I and flies the Uruguay flag. It continues to fish for toothfish in the Southern ocean. In March last year, Greenpeace was in Mauritius when the Camouco arrived there following the ITLOS case and its release from French detention in La Réunion. After repairs, it loaded a large container of fishing gear typically used to fish for toothfish in the Southern ocean and two containers of bait. It then sailed. Since then it has continued to land toothfish in Mauritius and, together with the Grand Prince, was fishing nearby when another pirate vessel sank in French waters around Kerguelen Island last year. To avoid arrest, the vessels refused to cooperate with the rescue operation and transshipped the bodies and survivors of the shipwreck to another vessel.

During the second Southern ocean pirate vessel case brought to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (The Monte Confurco case, Seychelles v France), Agent for the Seychelles, Mr Ramón García Gallardo, made it clear that the company wanted prompt release of the vessel and captain to continue its "economic activities". He said: "As regards Seychelles, the flag state, the purpose of the bond is to ensure that the vessel and its Captain should be able to go back to sea and continue their economic activities.”

[4] Paragraph 21 of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisations’s International Plan of Action to deter, prevent and eliminate IUU fishing: “States should ensure that sanctions for IUU fishing by vessels and, to the greatest extent possible, nationals under its jurisdiction are of sufficient severity to effectively prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing and to deprive offenders of the benefits accruing from such fishing."