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Tuna
was first canned in the early 20th century. Up until then, the sardine
was the only fish placed in cans. But in 1903, a shortfall in the
sardine catch off the coast of southern California saw a number of
enterprising cannery owners start packing tuna into the empty sardine
cans. A new industry was created.
Market leaders
THE
WWF notes the majority of the market is made up of four species:
skipjack alone account for more than half of the global catch of tuna,
followed by yellowfin, bigeye, and albacore.
Ian
Urbina, a former investigative reporter for the New York Times, is the
director of The Outlaw Ocean Project, a non-profit journalism
organization based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on reporting about
environmental and human rights crimes at sea."
Illegal fishing fleets generate $10 billion in annual sales
The Thunder. (Simon Arger/Selase Kove-Seyram/Sea Shepherd)
If
you look at the taxonomy of crime that plays out offshore, it’s both
diverse and acute. And yet illegal fishing sits at the top of that
hierarchy. It’s a global business estimated at $10 billion in annual
sales, and one that is thriving, as improved technology has enabled
fishing vessels to plunder the oceans with greater efficiency.
The
Thunder flourished in this context. Interpol had issued a Purple Notice
on the ship, the equivalent of adding it to a most wanted list, a
designation given to only four other ships in the world up to that time.
The vessel had collected over $76 million fromthe illicit sales of seafoodin the past decade, more than any other ship, according to Interpol estimates.
Banned
since 2006 from fishing in the Antarctic, the Thunder had been spotted
there repeatedly in the years that followed. In 2015, that’s where the
environmental organization Sea Shepherd found it. Speaking through a
translator, Peter Hammarstedt, captain of the Bob Barker, warned that
the Thunder was banned from fishing in those waters and would be
stopped.
It was the beginning of an extraordinary chase and the
subject of the second episode of “The Outlaw Ocean” podcast, from CBC
Podcasts and the L.A. Times. Listen to it here:
For
110 days and more than 10,000 nautical miles spanning two seas and
three oceans, the Bob Barker and a companion ship, both operated by Sea
Shepherd, trailed behindthe trawler, with the three
captains close enough to watch one another’s cigarette breaks and
on-deck workout routines. In an epic game of cat-and-mouse, the ships
maneuvered through an obstacle course of giant ice floes, endured a
cyclone-like storm, faced clashes between opposing crews and nearly
collided in what became the longest pursuit of an illegal fishing vessel
in history.
As chronicled by the Outlaw Ocean Project,
a nonprofit journalism organization whose reporter was on board the Bob
Barker, the chase ended with a distress call from the Thunder. “We’re
sinking,” the Thunder’s captain pleaded over the radio. The ships
operated by Sea Shepherd rescued the crew and tried gathering evidence
of its crimes before the ship sank to the bottom of the ocean.
Officials in Rhode Island say they seized a 9.4-foot bluefin tuna from a Massachusetts charter boat that was illegally fishing.(Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management)
PROVIDENCE,
R. I. (Gray News) - Officials say they recently seized a giant tuna
from a boat that was illegally fishing in Rhode Island waters.
The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management
said it recently seized a 9.4-foot bluefin tuna from a Massachusetts
charter boat as the captain didn’t have the required state commercial
fishing license.
According to the
department, the fish was taken after environmental officers determined
that the captain had paying clients on his vessel while fishing
commercially for giant bluefin tuna without a proper state license.
Officers said they escorted the boat back to port while spotting that the captain had a recently killed tuna onboard.
The
department said it sold the seized fish to a licensed dealer. The
captain was issued a criminal summons for the alleged violations with
the monies from the sold fish held in escrow.
Rhode
Island officials said giant bluefin tuna along the coast are an
indicator of a healthy ecosystem and environmental police officers are
committed to protecting them for the benefit of adequately licensed
fishermen who pursue these fish.
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