SOUTH AFRICA

DRAINING THE SEAS

AUGUST 2000 30 MINUTES

SALLY… Tonight on Special Assignment… we investigate the illegal plunder of the Patagonian Toothfish… a valuable and increasingly rare resource. We name some of the ships fishing illegally in South African territorial waters… travel to a port that handles illegal catches… and expose a frontman for a notorious fishing boat…

Plus end bit

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02’57

This is the Patagonian Toothfish – a fish that lives in the wild waters of the Southern Ocean off the islands of Antarctica. It’s so valuable that it’s known as white gold. This is the story of its destruction and the rush against time to save it.

(TITLE: Reel Money)

03’26

Cape Town harbour is a busy port for fishing boats. For ships like this one discharging tuna, it’s a convenient port of call. It has good facilities and is close to the fishing waters of the Southern Indian Ocean.

But Cape Town won’t handle illegally caught Toothfish. To offload here, vessels need a permit to catch the fish. And permits aren’t easy to come by. This year only five South African licences for Patagonian Toothfish were issued. This boat is one of the chosen few… that can legally catch and land this fish in Cape Town harbour.

04’08

Patagonian Toothfish is an oily white fish. It’s highly prized in Eastern markets for sushi. It’s also in great demand in the United States as a grilling fish… Latest indications are that there’s also a growing demand for Toothfish in the massive Chinese market.

This has led to astronomical prices. Toothfish can fetch up to 11 thousand US dollars per ton -- almost four times the price of other white fish… like hake.

04’31 UPS White gold

Dr Dezil Miller – World Expert Patagonian Toothfish

The toothfish has been known as white gold. And that’s exactly what it is, it’s an extremely profitable fishery as well as valuable and it has prompted what has been known as an explosion of fishing. And at one stage probably in excess of ninety vessels were operating in the southwestern Indian Ocean around Marion and around the French islands of Crozet.

One catch can make ship-owners millions. This has led to a gold rush in the Southern Ocean... mostly by illegal vessels - fishing without permits and in contravention of international law

4’58

This is where these modern-day toothfish pirates operate… in the remote fishing-waters surrounding the sub-Antarctic islands of South Africa, Australia, France, New Zealand and Britain.

According to international maritime law, there’s a so-called “Exclusive Economic Zone” around each island… a belt of two hundred nautical miles. In this zone, the country owning that land, also owns the fish and other marine resources. Most of the other fishing waters in vast ocean outside these Exclusive Zones, is under the protection of a 23-nation agreement… called the Convention for the Conservation of Marine Living Resources or CCMLR

South Africa controls the fishing around the Marion and Prince Edward islands… just as France and Australia do, around the islands where their flags fly.

5’34

But, in reality South Africa has no muscle to enforce its rights. In the past four years this area has become a free-for-all… with foreign vessels illegally pulling out thousands and thousands of ton's of Patagonian Toothfish. South African has stood by helplessly, as the illegal plunder takes place….

In 1996, a South African airforce Boeing was sent on a surveillance mission… to monitor illegal vessels It was the first -- and last -- action of its kind. On this one mission, more than fifty illegal vessels were photographed… blatantly operating inside South African and CCMLR waters…

None of these vessels was prosecuted… but the intelligence gathered was the first real proof of the environmental rape taking place.

6’20 UPS DENZIL

Dr Dezil Miller – World Expert Patagonian Toothfish

We estimate that between nineteen ninety… the end of ninety six and the middle of ninety eight, about thirty thousand tonnes of toothfish were removed illegally, and it is illegal because it’s out of waters which we have sovereign control. That.. that would have been worth in the region of a hundred million US dollars, that was essentially denied to our fishermen.

 

6’45

Four years later the impact on the economy is starting to tell. Some estimate that South Africa has now lost more than 2 billion Rands worth of fish to these pirate operators. Catch rates have dropped – they’re now a quarter of what they were two years ago. And with no further military backup in sight, South Africa’s fishing authorities have resorted to the only way left…. gathering as much information as possible…

7’04 UPS catch a thief...

Dr Dezil Miller – World Expert Patagonian Toothfish

They always say, “Set a thief to catch a thief”. First and foremost one of the key elements of the South African strategy to control the area around Prince Edward Island was to have our legitimate operators in there. South African companies, South African interests, South African vessels, who are able to act as sources of intelligence. This is a remote area, by having that presence of vessels that are there for their own interests you have almost an element of self protection. But the real, real thing is to actually, again going back to deterrents, that will only work to a certain extent. The only way you can do this to indicate you’re serious is actually to catch a vessel.

 

7’47 UPS Watkins... no patrol

Barry Watkins – Marine Observer on Legal Vessels

And of course what is happening now is that a lot of these vessels knows there are no ..um.. naval vessels patrolling our waters, So instead of picking their line up and moving out the area they are pretty blasé about the whole operation now.

8’02

These South African longline fishermen have licences to fish legally… but their livelihood depends on sustainable resources. With dwindling stocks, the fish they’re harvesting gets smaller and smaller. Finding them is more and more difficult.

But South African fishing operators are forced to wear two hats. They’re fishermen - and intelligence gatherers. South Africa has declared a year-round season, so as to maintain some presence in our waters at all times.

France and Australia have naval patrols and a history of arrests. We only have dedicated fishermen and marine observers documenting illegal actions.

8’38

Barry Watkins – Marine Observer on Legal Vessels

The problem now is because when one of these vessels, they paint their names out, the call signs out, and when we have picked up illegals within the radar screen, often the skipper’s gone, sailed towards that illegal vessel and they’ve tried to make contact with the skipper. Which has happened. They might feed us false information.

8’57

When these vessels return to Cape Town with their catches, they also return with information about the activities of illegal operators… and the picture is not a pretty one. The illegal operators are becoming more brazen by the day…

Only last week, this is footage taken by a South African observer onboard a legal ship.

First the South African skipper challenges the illegal ship. The captain of the illegal ship responds by asking if they have an inspector on board. The South Africans say they have.

A complete disregard for the law is clear in the next sequence…

9’17

Vessel Rita has been ordered to stop its engines and is refusing to concede to our demands.

9’25

Dr Dezil Miller – World Expert Patagonian Toothfish

In our islands, we probably, we may have about another year or so to go, unless there’s an influx of fish from somewhere else. The French islands to the east of Prince Edward and Marion the, probably the same kind of period. So I would say in the Indian Ocean, probably within three to five years we will be at a level where this resource will be commercially unusable, because it will not, there will not be enough, and it will be too costly to catch.

9’53

Proper policing of the Southern Ocean is like looking for a needle in a haystack. The area under South Africa’s jurisdiction is twice the size of South Africa itself. Saving the Patagonian Toothfish and catching the pirate vessels pillaging the ocean, is a hit-and- miss affair.

South Africa cannot afford to police its own water... so all too often it’s left to environmental hit-squads like Greenpeace. Luck is a crucial element – and played a big part in their recent Southern Ocean campaign. They were fortunate to come across a well-known pirate vessel – right inside French waters.

10’22

Denise Boyds – Greenpeace

While we were in those waters we found evidence of illegal fishing activity, we found three sets of abandoned longlines that we’ve retrieved, and we also saw a vessel called The Grand Prince. We found that inside the CCMLR area and indeed actually inside the French exclusive economic zone around the sub Antarctic island of Cookwheelan, and while that vessel did not appear to be actively fishing, it’s rather suspicious to find a longline vessel with a known history of illegal activity in that zone and area which is renown for hard hit by illegal fishing.

 

11’04

The Greenpeace team also found many abandoned longlines left by pirates. Longlining is a fishing method in which kilometers of fishing line are baited with thousands of hooks. The line is shot out into (?) the water and then attached to bouys. The fishermen return later to haul in their catch.

It’s a method well-suited to catching the Toothfish. The fish is found in waters up to 2 km’s deep. It’s slow- growing… and can live up to 50 years. Scientists believe it only starts mating when it’s ten years old… and a full-grown fish can reach two meters. Today smaller and smaller fish are being targeted as overfishing takes it toll.

There’ve been many efforts to stop the pirates. It’s more and more difficult for them to find friendly ports that’ll allow them to offload their catches. South Africa and Namibia are almost completely closed to them. But other ports have stepped in to fill the vacuum.

11’47

Mauritius is a haven for tourists who seek out its warm ocean and beautiful beaches. But it’s also become a safe haven for a less attractive kind of tourist… the Patagonian toothfish pirate.

12’05

Port Louis is the capital of Mauritius. Its harbour has a sophisticated infrastructure… a magnet for the illegal operators of the Southern Ocean. Mauritius hasn’t signed the 23- nation Convention for the Conservation of Marine Living Resources… it doesn’t therefore fall under the agreement that protects the Toothfish. It asks few questions and gives good service. Its top class refridgeration facilities are used to store Toothfish… before they’re shipped to markets in the East and West.

Special assignment met up with Greenpeace when they docked in the harbour at the end of their Southern Ocean campaign. … Greenpeace believes Mauritius is deliberately turning a blind eye to Toothfish operators because it’s a lucrative trade. The port makes good money out of the Toothfish trade….

13’01

Denise Boyds – Greenpeace

Two days after Greenpeace arrived here in Mauritius in Port Louis, of course Mauritius being known to be a haven to pirate fishing vessels in this region. The vessel called The Rita came into port. Now The Rita has had several name changes, she used to be called The Sindy(?), The Golden Tiger, Nordal Dan(?), she’s a well known pirate fishing vessel with a history of illegal activity. She came in here on Wednesday the fifth of April and unloaded ninety tonnes of Toothfish. Presumably because the operators of The Rita knew the Mauritian authorities would not challenge this vessels right to land this fish here in Port Louis.

13’45

When Greenpeace left Mauritius, Special Assignment remained behind to monitor the activities in the harbour. We suspected that the presence of Greenpeace had spread through the pirate grapevine. We were right.

14’12

Not an hour after Greenpeace had left, the notorious toothfish vessel the Rita, sailed out of port… presumably back to the Southern Ocean.

This is the Rita’s history. It flies the flag of Belize – generally regarded as a flag of convenience… so-called because Belize does little or nothing to control its vessels.

It has changed its name three times.

It has been sighted

It has been sighted

It has been

15’09

Almost immediately after the Rita left, so did the Vega… another ship mentioned in the Greenpeace rogues gallery as an illegal operator. It too flies a flag of convenience – Panama.

It has changed its name three times

It has been sighted

It has been sighted

16’14

Soon more illegal Toothfish ships started arriving. The first was none other than the boat spotted by Greenpeace in French waters some weeks earlier… the Whatsit.

16’49

It sailed into harbour and docked in a convenient position to offload its huge catch.

We confirmed its identity and then filmed it offloading 150 tonnes of Toothfish.

17’15

Denise Boyds – Greenpeace

It’s a very simple process to identify whether or not a vessel is carrying pirate caught Toothfish. There are only a certain number of vessels that have quota and license to fish in the CCMLR area. The onus of proof must absolutely be the skipper of the vessel, or the company that operates the vessel to prove where that vessel caught it’s fish.

 

This vessel too flies the flag of Belize…

17’40

This is the Port Louis port list. It confirms that not only the Grande Prince was offloading toothfish… but another three ships as well. The Mauritian authorities insist they don’t have enough information to stop the pirates…

17’52

Abhimanu Kundasamy – Mauritian High Commissioner to SA

Unless we are informed that this fish have been illegally caught and we know exactly where that fish was caught, it is very difficult for us to assess that. There needs to be greater policing by the member states who have got the responsibility of waters that falls that falls underneath their jurisdiction where the toothfish are. As I explained to you we don’t have any tooth fish in Mauritius.

AD BREAK

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18’22

The search for the names and faces behind the illegal ships resumed in Cape Town.

The Rita provided us with intriguing clues… both linking it to South Africa. Its crew was South African… and it had been photographed by the South African maritime patrol back in 1996.

We started a search in the DNV Register of Vessels. The owner it appears, is a company called Alvord Trading, registered in the Virgin Islands. But according to the same register, the Rita’s managing agent is Clarke Fishing. Their offices are in Mauritius…. but our investigation revealed that Clarke Fishing also has offices in this building in Cape Town.

19’00

This is Mike Clarke. He refused to give us an interview. But confirmed by fax that he was indeed the so-called managing agent of the Rita…. and another Toothfish ship, the Nina.

The previous owner of the ship Rita is well-known Norwegian fisherman, Odvar Vea. He’s publicly stated that he sold the vessel to Mike Clarke of Cape Town. But Clarke denies it - and refuses to reveal who the owner is.

19’35

I/V by phone:

Mike Clarke - Good day, Mike Clarke.

Annelise Burgess - Hi Mr Clarke, my name is Annelise Burgess, and I’m calling from special assignment at the SAVC.

Mike Clarke - Yes Ma’am.

Annelise Burgess -If you people don’t own it, who does own it?

Mike Clarke - Um.. that’s private information, I’m the manager of the vessel I’m not prepared to give out that information.

Annelise Burgess -So as the manager you know who owns it but you’re not allowed to say who?

Mike Clarke -Um, I think that information is quite easily accessible, but as the manager of the company I’m not going to say so, no.

Annelise Burgess -Okay, and does The Rita have permits to fish legally in CCMLR area or has it ever had permits?

Mike Clarke – The question is has the vessel ever fished illegally in CCMLR?

Annelise Burgess -Well according to sea fisheries it has.

Mike Clarke – That’s according to sea fisheries.

20’11

Not so says, Alistair Graham the coordinator of Isofish -- an Australian NGO committed to stopping illegal fishing in the Southern Ocean.

20’17UPS

Alistair Graham – Isofish

Odvar Vea tells us that he is no longer the owner, and that Mike Clarke is the owner. We actually do not think there has been a formal transfer of ownership, but Mike Clarke is identified as the person responsible for The Rita. So Mike Clarke simply cannot claim that he is not responsible for the operations of that boat. And whatever the letter of the law might be, that boat has been persistently and consistently, willfully operating in breach of the rules applied to Toothfish fishing in the Southern Ocean. Simply so that they can avoid playing by the rules to get access to that fishery.

20’58

But front companies and frontmen may not be enough to ward of legal liability:

 

21’05UPS

Gordon Wardley- Legal expert

By way of example would be, where I pay someone to kill someone else. I would be aiding and abetting and commissioning an offence. Because I paid a person to do it, although I physically don’t handle the gun, or physically pull the trigger there’s criminal responsibility on my part for the commission of that offence. To extrapolate that into the environment which we are talking about which is fishing, it might be that the owner or the manager of the fishing fleet is aware of the fact that the master of fishing vessels over which he has control, are committing offences and there’s nothing to stop it. It might even go further in that he actually gives orders or instructions for those masters to commit offences or to engage in activities which are unlawful.

21’52

But back in the fragile ecosystem of the Southern Ocean, paper trails and complicated legal arguments mean very little… The Patagonian tooth fish is being destroyed at an alarming rate… but the devastation is reaching further and further…

22’02

One of its nasty side effects of the fishery is the killing of these seabirds. Longlines are potential deathtraps unless they are shot into the water at night. In daytime, birds go for the baited hooks… and are dragged underwater and drown.

22’17UPS

Denise Boyds – Greenpeace

In the last year somewhere between sixty and one hundred thousand seabirds were killed in this way just in one year of fishing. And over the last three years, there have been almost two hundred thousand seabirds killed this way. It’s really quite critical, there are some species of Albatross of the world’s twenty-four species of Albatross, nineteen species live in the Southern Ocean and all of them are vulnerable. Longlining is identified as a major threat to seabirds, and we could really look quite seriously at the extinction of some species of Albatross.

22’49 UPS

John Cooper – Coordinator: Seabird Conservation Programme

And in the Southern Ocean, where a lot of pirate fishing goes on for Toothfish and where these species of birds are killed, we’ve worked out that the pirate fisheries are most likely killing many more birds than the licensed fisheries which are now adopting these litigation methods

23’07

Dr Dezil Miller – World Expert Patagonian Toothfish

And if we can’t solve Toothfish, which is relatively on a world scale, a small fishery in a responsible way we’re going to have a very difficult job to do it with some of the other fisheries that are even bigger and possibly as valuable if not more valuable.

23’21

Dennise Boyds – Greenpeace

The next fishery will more than likely be targeting species far more fundamental to the Southern Ocean and Arctic marine food web. And that’s Krill. There’s also an interest in squid, which is also very important, but Krill itself is the basis for that food web. Now if krill is taken out in unsustainable qualities the entire food chain and ecosystem will in all likelihood collapse.

 

23’52

For South Africa time is running out and urgent measure are need to save the fishery around the Prince Edward islands. Most agree that this will not happen unless harder action is taken against the illegals….

24’13

Barry Watkins – Marine Observer on Legal Vessels

We need some arrests, and to splash it all over the papers. Let the guys know we mean business.

24’19

Dr Dezil Miller – World Expert Patagonian Toothfish

One only has to realise that Marion Island is probably sixteen hundred kilometers away form here and in pretty rough areas. That’s logistically a very difficult thing to do.

24’29

Barry Watkins – Marine Observer on Legal Vessels

Well the solution is we need vessels down there patrolling.

24’33

Dr Dezil Miller – World Expert Patagonian Toothfish

It is doable, the Australians have done it at their islands which are a similar distance away from Australia. The French have an excellent record to the east at both Crozet and Kerguelen, but that takes political will and it takes money.

24’49

Everybody agrees that having a military presence in our remote fishing waters is probably the only real way to stop the poaching. Despite a cabinet decision to send at least one further patrol to the Southern Ocean, nothing has happened….

25’03

Horst kleinschmidt – Dept Environmental Affairs

Well it is about having resources, appropriate and adequate resources, and knowing when and where to deploy them. Basically I need to tell you that we are trying to control one vast area. If I might put it this way, the economic exclusion zone of South Africa is many times the landmass of South Africa, and that is one vast area to control. So we haven’t adequately got the means for that at this stage.

25’33

Dr Dezil Miller – World Expert Patagonian Toothfish

The Toothfish has been a classic crime against the environment. It has all the elements and intrigues of crime. High profitability, disregard for the law, a lack of accountability and a total and complete lack of responsibility.