Rural affairs minister dubs Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd ‘private armies’

Rural affairs minister George Pullicino yesterday raised the issue of the direct actions carried out by Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society on Maltese tuna ranchers in a European Council meeting on agricultural and fisheries in Luxembourg.

The meeting discussed among other things, the Commission’s aim to achieve a maximum sustainable yield for fish stocks by 2015 and the reform of the common fisheries policy.

“It is unacceptable that ‘private armies’ like those of Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd attack legal fishing operations as we witnessed in the past weeks,” a government statement said. “These organisations have no right to take the law in their hands and it is clear that these fishing operations must have greater security,” Pullicino was quoted as saying.

The Sea Shepherd group, using its Dutch-registered vessel Steve Irwin, managed to cut open a tuna cage and free 700-800 bluefin which it said were mostly juveniles and that the fish had been caught after the official closure of the season. It also claimed the fish it freed exceeded the quota. “Sea Shepherd holds the position that this operation by these two vessels was illegal,” said Captain Paul Watson, whose group regularly takes on whaling ships. The group is not connected to Greenpeace, which was also engaged in similar patrols to look out for illegal tuna fishing.

The owner of the tuna farming company whose boat was involved in skirmish with the conservationists, claimed the damages from the action amounted to over €1 million. The damages, Caruana said, include damages to the cage and a boat which caught fire from flares thrown by the crew of the Steve Irwin, the boat being captained by Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd.

In another action, unrelated to the Sea Shepherd’s Operation Blue Rage, Greenpeace were met with minimum force by the Armed Forces of Malta. Greenpeace activists spent two hours engaged in non-violent direct action to free endangered bluefin tuna from a large cage, and met resistance from the AFM through the “firing of flares from the fishing vessel and the use of water cannons”.

Greenpeace said the cage contained highly endangered bluefin tuna caught a few days ago by commercial fishing vessels. The activists, in seven inflatable boats, were launched from two Greenpeace ships, the Arctic Sunrise and the Rainbow Warrior.