The MarViva Med: Mediterranean Expedition (2008)
Read highlights from the expedition diaries below. For more, check out the full list of diary entries and view photos from the expedition.
Diary Highlights
Vanishing into the Darkness — A 4 a.m. Expedition
Keith Ellenbogen
July, 2008
At 4 a.m., with only the stars and the moon illuminating the darkness of the sea, our expedition team -- Carlos Perez, Cesar Fuertes, Maria Jose Cornax, Gorka Leclercq and myself -- rapidly descended down a vertical ladder from the Oceana MarViva Med into the rigid inflatable boat (RIB) underway at eight nautical miles per hour.
Our objective this morning was to use the RIB to get close (within 50ft/20m) to the driftnet fishing boats and to photograph them catching pelagic fish, such as swordfish and tuna.
Onboard the RIB, racing through the dark mist of the warm ocean mixing with the cool air and flat seas, we accelerated for about twenty minutes to our first targeted boat -- the S. Maria. In the open ocean, as we approached the driftnet, extreme care was taken not to let the propeller get caught in the drifting net that was nearly impossible to see. For a brief moment, our propeller did get entangled in the net but was quickly removed by Cesar Fuertes.
Continuing onward, we arrived at the S. Maria at 4:35 a.m. and noted the crew had already finished hauling in the driftnet. In frequent communication with Xavier Pastor onboard the Oceana MarViva, he proceeded to give us coordinates for our second targeted driftnet fishing boat, the Anna Prima.
With tensions high, our team carefully positioned the RIB so we were able to photograph, as best we can with virtually no light, the net being hauled in.
With the RIB underway, we accelerated through the Tyrrhenian Sea towards our second targeted driftnet fishing boat. During the 15 to 20 minutes of reeling in the driftnet, we did not observe them catching any pelagic fish. Perhaps they weren’t fishing for them or maybe there were no fish left in this area to catch.
Driftnet fishing is one of the worst methods of fishing as these walls of death kill anything and everything they comes in contact with.
Many of the Italian driftnet fishing boats are aware of their illegal activities and have adopted a number of strategies to avoid being easily documented. Recently, the fishermen have begun hauling in the driftnet under the darkness of night, finishing before light breaks at 5 a.m. A second technique to avoid being photographed is to cut the driftnet and return later in the day. Lastly, the driftnet fishing boats, knowing in advance they have caught a pelagic fish, reposition the stern of the boat to block the fish being photographed by our RIB.
As the light broke, we continued to look for other driftnet fishing boats before heading back to the Oceana MarNiva Med and picking up some plastic drifting in the ocean.
Dolphins
Keith Ellenbogen
July, 2008
At 10 a.m. under the bright sun and flat seas, we were fortunate to enjoy a brief moment watching a pod of common dolphins and a little baby surf the waves in front of the bow of our boat. One dolphin in particular seemed to enjoy swimming upside down watching us lean over the bow of the boat with camera and video lenses. They only stayed for a few minutes before heading back to the open sea.
I don’t know what exactly to say or why everyone feels this way but it really is a magical experience to see dolphins up-close and personal. Perhaps they feel the same way. I could have watched them all day and wished I was swimming with them.
Tunisia Navy Boards the Oceana Marviva Med
Keith Ellenbogen
June, 2008
Early this morning with calm seas, the Tunisian Navy Warship stopped our vessel and sent a platoon of five men onboard the Oceana MarViva Med from a small inflatable boat. At the time, we were heading innocently westward towards Algeria in Tunisian territorial sea near the island of La Galite. Over the past few days, the Tunisian Navy has been monitoring our activities in international waters — along the border of Tunisia and Pantalleria Island, Italy — outside the 12 nautical mile limit from the Tunisian coast.
Throughout the past few days, the Tunisian Navy would frequently call our vessel over the radio questioning our activities and motives. Due to International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations, the MarViva Med is obligated to have our automatic identification system (AIS) activated all the time, so we are easily monitored from land.
Every time we changed our course or maneuvered to try to document driftnet fishing boats, we received a call from the Coast Guard, requesting information about our intentions and what we were doing. They do not "see" the fishing boats, as those do not have AIS. So the Coast Guard station sees only the MarViva Med course suddenly doing strange turns and changing speed and course very often, making the Tunisian Navy curious.
Onboard for approximately two hours, the Tunisian Navy inspected the boat thoroughly and interviewed both Captain Jan Rautwaara and expedition leader Xavier Pastor about our intensions.
They were intrigued about the reason and the objectives of our research. They were concerned that we had hydrographic instruments but we told them that our only instruments were our cameras. Xavier showed them Oceana’s 2006 and 2007 reports on French, Italian and Moroccan driftnetters and also the report "European Trawlers are Destroying the Oceans," a title Xavier thought they would like. They finally seemed to understand the purpose and the importance of the research.
Xavier further explained to the Tunisian Navy how we were documenting the activities of four Italian driftnetters and how we managed to get pictures and identification of one of them while hauling in the net. The other three boats flied into Tunisian waters when they saw us. We followed them and that was when we were identified by our AIS transmissions by the Tunisia Coast Guard land station.
Since our sighting of these four driftnet fishing boats, we have been constantly monitored by the Tunisian Navy. Xavier showed the Navy Officer pictures of the Italian driftnetters we have taken and asked me to prepare a DVD copy of the pictures to take back to their ship.
During the process of selecting the pictures, the photos of our cheerful crew watching the soccer European final between Spain and Germany appeared in the screen and the situation went smoothly after this, as the officer started to smile. The crew onboard the warship had also been watching the game last night.
They left the MarViva Med with the information and allowed us to keep sailing. We are now proceeding to Algerian controlled waters. During the entire process, Xavier asked Gorka Leclercq, videographer, and me, photographer, to discreetly photograph the boat.
The situation with the control of the waters in the Mediterranean is very volatile these days. Although the international law seems to admit only the 12 miles territorial waters (no formal EEZ in the Mediterranean), there are a lot of unilaterally declared "fisheries protection zones", "environmental protection zones" and "platform/continental shelf waters" where the navies and coast guards of the individual countries basically act as they want, allowing illegal fishing to take place if there is an agreement of the fishing companies with the specific government or making life difficult to independent observers. We have to be extra careful in our movements.
Could This Be One of the last Atlantic Bluefin Tuna?
Keith Ellenbogen
June, 2008
“If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes.” - Pablo Picasso
Beneath the surface at a depth of 25m/80ft in the Mediterranean Sea, I watched a single bluefin tuna swimming all alone. At that moment, I felt a sense of urgency that populations are really collapsing and disappearing. Then I imagined what life must have been like only a few years ago as abundant schools of breeding bluefin tuna passed in and out of these waters on their annual migration.
Not far away, armed with highly efficient and sophisticated fishing technology, I could hear the obtrusive sounds of fishing boats, nets extending into the water and the panic of the other tuna as they raced to save their lives. With fishing quotas exceeded in only one month, the Atlantic bluefin tuna is in real danger of becoming extinct from overfishing to satisfy a voracious Japanese sushi market. I wonder if we can control our desire for instant financial gratification trends in cuisine to maintain a sustainable and healthy future.
Yet despite all the regulations in place, the reality of overfishing and consumption is all too real. Removing all other factors -- social, political, financial -- if we know the Atlantic bluefin tuna numbers are declining, then I’ll ask the question, “If not now, then when should we start to conserving and protecting this spectacular living animal for future generations?” I hope it is not until there is only one tuna left in the Mediterranean Sea.
On behalf of the Atlantic bluefin tuna, I ask everyone to reduce their consumption of this precious fish and for fisherman to adhere to the European Union’s Commission decisions to stop fishing, as the fishing quotas for the year 2008 have already been filled.
“There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed.” - Mohandas Gandhi
