Sea Shepherd Cuts Fishing Vessel's Nets
The Sea Shepherd ship, Bob Barker, has cut the nets of the Interpol-listed fishing vessel, Thunder, in the waters of the Melville Bank in the southwest Indian Ocean.
According to a Sea Shepherd account of the incident, which began at approximately 0240 AEDT on Sunday, the captain of the Thunder radioed the Bob Barker to notify of his intent to recommence fishing.
The captain of the Bob Barker, Peter Hammarstedt, responded to the call, notifying the Thunder that their attempts to fish were illegal, and that the crew of the Bob Barker would obstruct their fishing activity by cutting their gillnets.
The Thunder deployed a buoy set marking the beginning of the net then proceeded to run it out. The crew of the Bob Barker threw grappling hooks and cut the buoy free from the leading line.
In Sea Shepherd’s recount of the events, it is alleged that a radio message from Thunder indicated they were coming to get their fishing gear “either the easy way or the hard way. You have declared war on us.”
Hammarstedt responded by asking Thunder to follow the Bob Barker to Mauritius. “The gear we have confiscated will be used as evidence in your prosecution. You’re more than welcome to come to Mauritius with us to retrieve it.”
The Thunder then followed the Bob Barker for approximately two hours before stopping. The Bob Barker also stopped, and both vessels are currently drifting.
The incident followed an encounter on Saturday when the Thunder and Bob Barker passed within 0.5m of each other as Bob Barker attempted to intervene in fishing operations.
The Nigerian flagged Thunder was issued with an Interpol Purple Notice in 2013 for suspected illegal fishing activity, following a joint effort by New Zealand, Australia and Norway.
In 2013, Interpol stated that the vessel has operated under at least three different names and under several flags, in order to avoid detection of illegal fishing activities. In July 2012, Mongolian registration papers for a vessel called Wuhan 4 were issued; however in August 2012 the vessel was sighted in the North Indian Ocean under the name Kuko. In October 2012, the vessel was spotted at a Singapore shipyard under the name Wuhan N 4 and under a Mongolian flag.
In April 2013, the same vessel requested access to a port in Malaysia under the name Wuhan 4 but when inspected a few days later in Indonesia, it was using the name Thunder and with the Nigerian flag.
According to Interpol, it is possible that the owners of Thunder have earned more than $60 million from its illegal fishing activities since it was blacklisted by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) in February 2006.