Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise spotted a pirate vessel fishing with a driftnet in international waters in Mediterranean Sea and retrieved a length of the illegal net. The Arctic Sunrise confronted the fishing vessel Luna Rossa in the Mediterranean Sea, around 40 miles west of the Italian island of Marettimo, off Sicily.
According to the Greenpeace activists the fishing pirates were using a fishing practice that has long been banned by the United Nations and the European Union because of the high level of bycatch including whales, dolphins and turtles. They also said that the vessel clearly knows of its illegality, but it was attempting to hide its registration number to avoid identification and prosecution. When the activists interrupt the fishermen cut their net and steamed away at high speed.
Karli Thomas, Greenpeace International Oceans Campaigner aboard the Arctic Sunrise, told that the driftnets are walls of death, and their continued use is piracy. He also added that Greenpeace is out on the water exposing these offenders, but the real responsibility for enforcing the driftnets ban and punishing these villains lies with the Italian government and the European Union.
Greenpeace said that for years, Mediterranean governments have continued to condone such piracy when the law has given them a mandate to protect the Mediterranean Sea. It is said that Greenpeace is campaigning for a global network of fully protected marine reserves covering 40 percent of the oceans as an essential way to protect its seas from the ravages of climate change, to restore the health of fish stocks, and protect ocean life from habitat destruction and collapse.
