The exploits of Greenpeace & Kat

:biggrin2:

http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/news/details?item_id=493947

(+ VIDEO!!)

Remember last week when Greenpeace activists were "roughed up" by members of the Orange Roughy Management Company (ORMC) at a peaceful protest in Nelson, New Zealand? Their Chief Executive last week even denied that any of its members operated in International waters. Well it seems that someone was throwing us a bit of a red herring, because yesterday the Rainbow Warrior located three bottom trawlers on the high seas. One of them had connections to our old friends at the ORMC ...


The Rainbow Warrior located the Amaltal Voyager, Westbay, and Corsair around 350 miles off the coast of New Zealand on the Northwest Challenger Plateau. The plot thickens: it turns out that the Amaltal Fishing Company is a shareholder of the Orange Roughy Management Company (ORMC).

Despite their previous bravado, the bottom trawling industry doesn't seem to want to communicate. The occupants of the three ships haven't responded to our contact via radio - except occasionally with, shall we say, "impolite" hand gestures.

While our intrepid Greenpeace activists documented the fishing activities on the high seas in the face of an unexpectedly large swell and a little subsequent seasickness, a different type of Greenpeace delegation began talks at the UN to secure a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling. New Zealand will now be in the hot seat since all of the vessels revealed by the Rainbow Warrior were registered in New Zealand.


"The New Zealand Government has yet to say whether it will support or oppose a moratorium but they must be feeling the heat in New York at the moment," said Carmen Gravatt, Greenpeace New Zealand campaigner, from aboard the Rainbow Warrior.

Yesterday at a UN press conference delegates were treated to a rare broadcast from on board the Rainbow Warrior giving them a first hand look at the activists at work. Many scientists also made presentations at the conference - in fact over a thousand of them are supporting the call for a moratorium on bottom trawling because of the absolute devastation caused by this fishing technique. Many species have not even been described or discovered before they are fished out, while ancient corals and sponges are decimated, with little chance of recovery.

"There are only a small number of nations responsible for this environmental devastation," said Karen Sack, Greenpeace International Oceans Policy Advisor, at the UN. "While they reap rich rewards, the biodiversity of the least protected area of this planet is being wiped out. That is why the United Nations must impose an immediate moratorium on bottom trawling."
 
There's a tremendous amount happening at sea right now, and Kat has been in the thick of it for an absolute eternity. Updates can be found on the Greenpeace website. Unfortunately the plankton-net tows haven't captured any larval squid in recent nights, but she's been collecting all sorts of other weird and wonderful items.

Squid are very patchy out there in the oceans of late, more so than ever this past year. It really has been quite frustrating. Doesn't look like there'll be good recruitment into squid stocks this year. We do allude to a cause in the egg mass paper.

The UN is supposed to makes its decision today, whether it calls for a moratorium on bottom trawling in international waters. Cross fingers!
 
... you can see Kat online (talking away, looking very serious, and she has every right to) by clicking the link on the following page

http://www.greenpeace.org/news/details?item_id=497076

Also (news alert):
"They already had the opinion of thousands of scientists and a coalition of environment and wildlife groups. Then we gave them a petition signed by over 6000 cyberactivists. If that wasn't enough, the Rainbow Warrior documented actual hard evidence of the destruction of protected species in the Tasman Sea and beamed it all the way to New York. But still, the UN has this week failed to seize a crucial opportunity to halt high-seas bottom trawling.


"They had a real opportunity to act and they failed," said Karen Sack of Greenpeace. "We need immediate action to save the deep sea from being bulldozed by fishing vessels from a handful of countries."

Several delegations blocked moves to prohibit high seas bottom trawling - the world's most destructive fishing practice - under pressure from fisheries ministries in their countries. Iceland and Japan were particularly vocal in opposition. The measure was replaced with a weak recommendation that nations "consider" an interim prohibition.

These discussions were all taking place at this week's UN meeting in New York which had the power to recommend an immediate halt on bottom trawling to the UN General Assembly. Greenpeace members were out in force distributing footage from the Rainbow Warrior showing the devastating effects of bottom trawling and ensuring that the opinions of our cyberactivists were visible even in the corridors.

It's not all bad though - governments from virtually every region of the world expressed support for a prohibition on bottom trawling. Particularly strong calls for action to halt bottom trawling were made by Norway, Thailand, Costa Rica, the Republic of Palau, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Of course, this is not the last you've heard on bottom trawling, we will be continuing our defence of the millions of rare, protected and undiscovered species in the deep sea, so stay tuned ..."
.....
It is not over yet!
 
Well, the Rainbow Warrior berths in Wellington today. We'll probably have :twisted: back online in a few days, although I expect it to take several days before her land-legs return. The weather has turned to custard down here, so the return right now is quite timely.

I'll have to clean the office up ... and of course, turn down Neil :?
 
Way to go Kat ! Nice to see someone so passionate about their ideals...very cool.
 
Steve O'Shea said:
I'll have to clean the office up ... and of course, turn down Neil :?

What is this 'clean the office', what is this 'turn down Neil'?
I think I need to have a little lie down. I mean Kat can use a shovel and a GPS, so, she can find her desk. I don't see what you're worried about. :wink:

Am going to be set an (another) awful task for this...

Obviously you must mean Finn, the only true Neil. :P
 
We were hoping Kat could use the shovel on Neil D ! Oh well...to each his own... :biggrin2:
 
My-Oh-My. Those are extreme words for Dr Don Robertson to use (NIWA); a very influential man; and very good to see. Congratulations Don!

One needn't worry about the nonsense Owen spouts; it's the sort of crap one has come to expect from him. There's another letter online where he invites members of TVNZ off to sea 'to experience the modern-day fishing industry working in harmony with nature and all of its forces', in response to an earlier telly piece I did. I must dig it out and repost here.

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=776

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=777
 
Hi, gang!! :arr:

The horrible rumors are true - I am back in the office. And I would like to state, for the record, contrary to certain middle-men who took liberties with my posts in my absence, that a certain carpet-chested person was not mentioned (nor inflicted upon anyone's ears) once during the entire blissful three-and-a-half weeks on board! Otherwise there would have been a lot more :yuck: .

So... the trip was fabulous. I can post the email updates I sent to people every couple days, if anyone wants to slog through them. I also dropped off my films for developing today, so hopefully there will be some hard evidence soon...

Small things like beverages staying upright on their own, and showers that don't move, and hallways that are wider than 24", are still pretty amazing. And don't even get me started on crossing the street... the cast should be off in about 6 weeks... :wink:
 
The much more saline Tintenfisch said:
So... the trip was fabulous. I can post the email updates I sent to people every couple days, if anyone wants to slog through them.

If you found it worth writing, it's probably worth reading. I find it difficult to believe that "slog" is an appropriate verb, :twisted:. Please share everything, or I'll be forced to bug you incessantly.

(I've been suffering horribly from withdrawal and nightmares of nautical disasters, you know. :frown:)
 

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