A 'Fishing Boat' The Size Of Sydney Opera House

News from the Celtic Legue:

I highlighted our concerns expressed via the General Secretary to the EU about the activities of so called super trawlers that fish globally but have been particularly active in a stretch of waters spanning North Scotland – the West of Ireland – to West Africa.

Some countries are tackling this type of predatory attack on their resources. Large countries like Australia and small comparatively poor countries like Palau whose attempts to tackle aggressive illegal fishing by Chinese fleets I highlighted recently (links below).

Last year I sent a series of queries to domestic government (such as the UK and Ireland) and international bodies like the ILO, IMO and EU but we, individuals and groups, need to keep the pressure on.

A very good campaign source last year was New York journalist Ian Urbina and his series of articles ‘the Outlaw Ocean’. Ian told me recently he hopes to renew the campaign via the paper shortly and I hope this comes to fruition.

In the meantime to highlight why this is so important I attach a link to an article animalaustralia.org did just over six months ago when the campaign was ongoing (link);

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/…/super-scary-super-trawler…

There piece starts:

“There's a fishing 'boat' the size of the Sydney Opera House trawling its way around southern Australia — catching and killing everything unlucky enough to swim in its path. Help stop this wholesale slaughter of our marine life!”

That was happening off Australia and for the past six months the same wanton destruction has been wreaked along the ‘Western Atlantic Arc.

This madness has to be confronted and stopped!

Related links:

https://www.facebook.com/805941286121301/photos/a.806379472744149.1073741828.805941286121301/1024104027638358/?type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/805941286121301/photos/a.806379472744149.1073741828.805941286121301/1018678381514256/?type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/805941286121301/photos/a.806379472744149.1073741828.805941286121301/1023243674391060/?type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/805941286121301/photos/a.806379472744149.1073741828.805941286121301/1005273369521424/?type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/805941286121301/photos/a.806379472744149.1073741828.805941286121301/1004755046239923/?type=3&theater

Image: The Geelong Star which was fishing off Australia last year – these are not ‘trawlers’ they are floating factories consuming marine resources at an alarming rate

BERNARD MOFFATT

Issued by: The Manx branch of the Celtic League

TEL: 01624 877918 or 07624 491609

23/05/16

THE CELTIC LEAGUE

The Celtic League established in 1961 has branches in the six Celtic Countries including our own Mannin branch. It promotes cooperation between the countries and campaigns on a range of political, cultural and environmental matters. It highlights human rights abuse, military activity and socio-economic issues

The link for the main web pages is below:

http://celticleague.net