cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/56814821
Tuvalu has arrested a Chinese tuna longliner, borrowing a vessel from a wellknown conservation charity to do so.
On the evening of July 9, Tuvalu Police Force maritime trackers picked up something strange about a vessel they were watching. From there, they boarded the Allankay, a vessel owned by Sea Shepherd Global, and went to investigate.
According to Sea Shepherd, police found the crew of the Lu Rong Yuan Yu 13 throwing illegally caught shark fins overboard while stockpiling tuna and keeping essentially no records.
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Experts say it is a “quite exceptional” kind of arrangement, where developing countries, particularly in Africa, lean on an NGO for law enforcement. But Sea Shepherd says it is a model that has proven successful, and they hope to bring it to the Pacific.
Sea Shepherd’s chief campaigns officer Captain Peter Hammarstedt told RNZ Pacific that Tuvalu had come to them with a partnership in mind after their lone patrol boat, the Te Mataili II, was destroyed by cyclones Judy and Kevin in 2023.
“When somebody comes into the waters of Tuvalu and fishes illegally, it is a direct assault on the livelihoods of Tuvaluans,” Captain Hammerstedt said.
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“Tuvalu asked us if we could send our ship there to help fill that law enforcement vacuum.”
Tuvalu’s Transport Minister Simon Kofe has thrown his support behind the group, thanking it for its support in public LinkedIn posts. Captain Hammerstedt said there was more to come in the Pacific.
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‘Three-dimensional chess’
Ships worldwide operate on the Automatic Identification System (AIS), which gives their location in real time via transponders, to stop them from crashing into each other.
But here the AIS transmission was quite simply impossible. It transmitted a latitude that put it on the equator — but if the longitude were true, the vessel would no longer be on the planet.
It did not take long for the police to realise that it was a spoof — a scrambled signal to mask the ship’s location so it could travel in the dark.
“It’s used repeatedly by the Chinese distant water fishing fleet,” Captain Hammarstedt explained.
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Sea Shepherd, once known for tailing Japanese whaling vessels, has moved toward partnerships with law enforcement, particularly in African countries.
They are most famous for using confrontational tactics in the high seas, with illegal fishers and whalers the primary target. A “jolly rodger” style black flag adds to their aura.
A journal article from Chatham House’s International Affairs published in January, which featured interviews from SS workers, discussed this “exceptional” arrangement as a reflection of those countries’ weakness in the face of external pressures.
But for the Pacific, with its Forum Fisheries Agency and the tens of millions in annual funding it receives, one may wonder why the “skull and crossbones” is necessary.
“Sea Shepherd seeks to complement those efforts,” Captain Hammerstedt said.
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