After two weeks of patrolling Mozambican waters for illegal fishing, Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace’s flagship, docked in Maputo this week.
The organisation had been working with the Mozambican Ministry of Fisheries inspecting foreign fishing vessels that mainly targeted high-value tuna and endangered sharks in the area.
In just 14 days, Rainbow Warrior, which was in Durban earlier this month, covered 133 500km2 and inspected four vessels – three Japanese and one Spanish.
Paloma Colmenarejo, a Greenpeace International campaigner on board the Rainbow Warrior, said one of the Japanese vessels, the Fukuseki Maru number 27, failed to co-operate and allow enforcement officials to weigh shark fins on board.
“This was an infringement on its licensing conditions, and the Mozambique government is currently considering further legal proceedings,” said Colmenarejo.
She said if a vessel was caught fishing illegally, it would be brought to port where another inspection would be carried out. There may be a fine, a confiscation of cargo, and in some cases, the fishing company might be blacklisted.
Because Mozambique has limited resources, its waters were not closely monitored, creating an opportunity for illegal fishing.
“Fishing fleets are plundering the Indian Ocean of tuna, sharks, and other ocean life,” said Colmenarejo.
“Vessels which repeatedly fail to comply with the rules must be stopped.
“Our oceans and the billions of people dependent on them for food and jobs need proper control and enforcement of fishing regulations.”
According to Greenpeace, longliners in Mozambique waters targeted mainly albacore, bigeye, and yellowfin tuna, as well as swordfish and sharks.
“Illegal fishing is a massive problem in waters of coastal states with limited capacity to monitor these vessels’ activities,” said Colmenarejo. “It is stealing from the Indian Ocean and deprives coastal states of much-needed income.”
Joao Noa Senete, head of the Fisheries Surveillance Operations Department at the Mozambique Ministry of Fisheries, said illegal fishing affected fishing communities and squandered resources at the expense of future generations.
Greenpeace called on tuna brands to ensure they had a traceable supply chain and only sourced tuna that was legal and came from sustainable sources.
Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace’s newest vessel, docked in the Durban harbour last month, and was made as environmentally friendly as possible, sailing primarily under wind power and equipped with a special biological water-filtering system.
It is set to remain in Maputo for the next few days, after which Greenpeace will continue its surveillance in the Indian Ocean.