An illegal toothfish longliner that was followed by Sea Shepherd last year has finally turned up in West Africa, a long way from its Southern Ocean fishing grounds, and has been detained in Senegal where there are questions about its registry.
Kunlun was one of three IUU vessels, and reported to have links with a Spanish company, that continued to haul its gillnet gear even in the presence of the New Zealand navy at the beginning of last year in Australian waters. A month later, the same vessel was spotted by the crew of Sea Shepherd’s Sam Simon, and an eight-day pursuit chased the Kunlun out of the Southern Ocean. It resurfaced in March last year in Phuket and was detained after an attempt to discharge 182 tonnes of toothfish that had been declared as grouper. The frozen fish was put back in Kunlun’s fishroom and the boat stayed in Phuket until the crew snatched an opportunity to evade the authorites and steamed from Phuket in September last year.
Now it appears that Kunlun, renamed Asian Warrior and supposedly under the Indonesian flag, has made its way half way around the world to Senegal and has not made its way back to the Southern Ocean to continue its illegal fishing activities. Of the group of six toothfish poachers identified by Sea Shepherd last year, only one, Viking, is still believed to be unaccounted for.
