According to Agence France Presse (AFP) the injury was so sever that the Greenpeace activist had to go under surgery and the injury was caused by a grappling hook slung by French fishermen. In its press release the Federation of Maltese Aquaculture Producers (FMAP) said that Greenpeace attacked the fishermen first. However, Greenpeace said in a statement that the fishing boat, the Jean-Marie Christian VI, was one of several French tuna vessels in international waters off Malta.
The press release said that several boats surrounded the Greenpeace zodiacs, threatening them with knives attached to long poles, and some of the fishermen also fired flare guns at a Greenpeace helicopter hovering overhead to monitor the situation.
As CITES has turned down the proposal to ban international commercial trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna, the fishing become rampant. Commenting on the incident the FMAP said that the Greenpeace activity was violent and unlawful. They alone bear the blame for the consequences of yesterday’s incidents.
Greenpeace activist, Frank Hewetson, 45, was trying to free tuna from a commercial fishing net in a protest on Friday afternoon when the fishermen threw the hook at the Greenpeace dinghy he was in and which pierced his left leg, he said. Greenpeace originally said he was harpooned. he said that he caught between bone and muscle which is very painful.
The environmental group said that Hewetson and other Greenpeace activists were trying to lower the side of a purse seine net with sand bags to free the fish when the confrontation occurred. The federation added that the fishermen had done nothing to provoke attention from the activists except by carrying out their legitimate business.
FMAP said that the activists’ effort against the fishermen cannot be considered other than violent and illegal. There is no other way to define a concerted and well planned action that seeks to prevent another from carrying out his lawful activities. Bluefin tuna fishing in the EU is highly regulated. International observers have been present on all purse seiners and fishermen are subjected to an unprecedented level of controls.
