AFM to keep ‘watchful eye’ as Greenpeace, tuna fishermen clash on high seas off Malta

But the incident sparked a series of reactions from fishing bodies in the Mediterranean, including Malta, with the Federation of Maltese Aquaculture Producers hitting out at Greenpeace for their actions at sea, in a bid to free the caged tuna.

Greenpeace activist Frank Hewetson, 45, from London was reportedly trying to free tuna from a commercial fishing net off Malta on Friday afternoon when the fishermen threw the hook at the Greenpeace dinghy he was in and it pierced his left leg.

Contacted by MaltaToday as he recovered from surgery yesterday afternoon, Frank Hewetson welcomed reports of the possibility of the Maltese navy being present in the area, but stressed that Greenpeace will keep up with its actions in the Mediterranean, “as tuna is facing definite extinction.”

With regards to the AFM at sea, Hewetson said that “so far it’s the only navy we havn’t seen around,” adding that French, Greek, Spanish and even Turkish naval assets, some of which were also acting as ICAT monitors, are in the area and monitoring events.

The Greenpeace activist explained that the skirmish at sea was quite violent, with two of his colleagues boats sunk as the fishermen steered their boats over them after they perforated their canvas with huge spiked hooks.

“I was in fact injured in a brutal way, when the fishermen threw the grappling hook to get my boat, but instead they caught my leg.

“With the hook stuck between my bone and muscle, they deliberately pulled me off my bridge and kept towing my boat by pulling my leg through the hook and the rope attached to it. It was excruciating, but I somehow managed to pull the hook off and freed my leg,” Hewetson said.

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 fishing boat, the Jean-Marie Christian VI, was one of several French tuna vessels in the area, in international waters off Malta, Greenpeace said in a statement.

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 statement said.

Greenpeace had stationed two ships in the Mediterranean, the Rainbow Warrior and Arctic Sunrise, to confront tuna fishing boats during the short tuna fishing season.

Bertrand Wendling, head of Sathoan, which represents the owners of many of the French tuna fishing boats including the one whose nets were targeted by Greenpeace, accused the group of interfering with a legal business activity and jeopardising the livelihoods of ordinary fishermen.

In a statement, the Federation of Maltese Aquaculture Producers stated that “"The Greenpeace activists cannot have expected the fishermen not to resist the attack; they sought confrontation and got the confrontation they wanted."

The federation condemned the use of violence but pointed out that the incident occurred because the activists intervened in a legitimate fishing operation. The fishermen, it said, had done nothing to provoke attention from the activists except by carrying out their legitimate business.

"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 which seeks to prevent another from carrying out his lawful activities," the federation said.

Industrial-scale fishing and harvesting on the high seas has caused stocks of bluefin tuna to plunge by up to 80 percent in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, where they come to spawn in the warmer waters.

About 100 fishing vessels sail the Mediterranean during the short tuna fishing season.

Many of the boats carry net cages used to encircle the tuna shoals, which are then towed offshore to be fattened and shipped in giant freezer ships to Japan, where tuna is a mainstay of sushi and sashimi.

Earlier this year the European Union and the United States backed an international trade ban on tuna fished from these waters, but Japan lobbied successfully and the proposal was defeated.

France's national fisheries body backed the fishermen Saturday, saying they "were attacked by helmeted Greenpeace activists.”

Greenpeace has vowed to continue its campaign to free caged tuna on the high seas and will continue to do so, even when the season closes on June 15.