This Philippines-flagged vessel was said to be at the site of a transfer of tuna between her sister vessel and a refrigerated mothership, the Kenken 888.

According to Greenpeace, it is likely that a transfer of fish at sea involving an illegal vessel was about to occur, but the arrival of the conservation group prevented it from taking place as the vessels immediately separated and "fled."

"Transfers of fish at sea are well know to be facilitating pirate fishing around the world; now we also have the proof of this in the Pacific. It is unacceptable that this is still allowed to continue," said Greenpeace Australia Pacific campaigner Lagi Toribau on board the Esperanza. "The pockets of international waters between Pacific island countries are especially prone to pirate activities and should be closed down to all fishing. Transfers of fish should only be allowed to happen in port so they can be monitored properly."

According to Greenpeace, the Queen Evelyn 168 is not authorised to undertake any fishing activities in this part of the Pacific. All vessels were registered to the Philippines. The Queen Evelyn 889 and the Kenken 888 have legal permission to operate in this area. However, Greenpeace is demanding that tuna transfers happen only in port, where the amount of the catch can be accurately monitored.

"At-sea transfers result in massive underestimation of the Pacific tuna catch. For years tuna have disappeared unreported on motherships like this. The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission - which is supposed to protect tuna from overfishing - is clearly failing to do so. The only hope for Pacific tuna fisheries and the tuna themselves is to close the Pacific Commons to all fishing as marine reserves and to ban all transfer of fish at sea," said Toribau. Last week, a report was released that estimates that on top of the known fish catch, at least another 34% is stolen by pirates in the Western and Central Pacific.

Greenpeace activists were later able to board the mothership with the permission of the ship's captain and documented the contents of the hold - predominantly of juvenile yellowfin and skipjack tuna. Activists obtained information from the captain about six other transfers of tuna he had done over the last month in the same pocket of international waters. These transfers alone added up to 675 tonnes of skipjack and yellowfin tuna onboard and were mainly from boats flagged to the Philippines belonging to the same company, TPS Marine Industries, Greenpeace claims.

"Scientists have been warning for years that bigeye and yellowfin tuna are suffering from overfishing. This takes on a whole new light when you realise that secret catches haven't been included in the situation.

"Bigeye and yellowfin tuna are most probably in worse trouble than scientists have predicted," continued Toribau. "We need to act now and cut the fishing effort by half within the waters of Pacific island countries to save these fisheries."

60% of tuna eaten globally each year comes from the Pacific, heading mostly to markets in Japan, the European Union and United States. Greenpeace has renewed its call for retailers to stop selling "unsustainable" tuna products such as bluefin, bigeye and yellowfin, which it says are now threatened in all oceans.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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