Sea Shepherd in 'tuna battle' off the Barbary coast

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society today were refused an inspection aboard a number of Tunisian-registered tuna seiners, whcih the organisation suspected was involved in illegal fishing.

"It quickly became apparent that the seven vessels and two floating tuna cages were suspicious. The attitude of the fishermen was clearly hostile and they refused to answer if they had an ICCAT (International Commission on the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna) inspector onboard. They refused to allow an inspection of the cages," Sea Shepherd - which is currently running Operation Blue Rage off the Libyan coast - said on their website.

At 9:20am one of the fishing vessels radioed the French Navy and claimed that Sea Shepherd was attacking them and cutting their nets. Sea Shepherd denied the allegation.

Sea Shepherd said the Tunisian seiner Tapus came close alongside their vessel Steve Irwin and the crew began to hurl stones and steel chain links at the Sea Shepherd crew on deck. The Sea Shepherd crew responded with bottles of rotten butter that they smashed onto the decks of the seiner to force them to back off.

The Sea Shepherd Delta inflatable attempted to inspect the tuna cage but was attacked by two small boats throwing chunks of metal at the Sea Shepherd crew.

At 9:40am a French naval jet flew over numerous times to document the situation. At 11:30am, the seven seiners were joined by another seiner. All the vessels are flying a Tunisian flag. Sea Shepherd said the vessels appealed to the French Navy for protection.

"Sea Shepherd is remaining with these vessels until an ICCAT inspector can found to communicate with. The regulations require these vessels to have an ICCAT inspector onboard. We have not had any response to our request to speak with an ICCAT inspector to determine the legality of this operation," Sea Shepherd.