Out on the tuna front: watch Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd's videos

This has been a week dominated by the reality of Malta’s tuna ranching industry – Greenpeace activists patrolled the Mediterranean for illegal tuna fishing, and Sea Shepherd have come in for serious criticism after two Maltse fishermen had to be airlifted back to Malta from Libyan waters due to injuries suffered in a skirmish.

No two sides are immune from blame: fishermen have reacted violently to the campaigners, who have been trying to conduct direct actions to free Bluefin tuna they believe has been caught illegally.

Video taken by Sea Shepherd

Video taken by Greenpeace

This is a major concern because organisations like the World Wildlife Fund say the Bluefin tuna species is on the verge of collapse because of overfishing, mainly driven by tuna-farming which sells the prized fish to the Japanese market. Malta is at the centre of this industry.

Because of this, the government is ensuring the Armed Forces of Malta will escort the tuna ranchers bringing their live catch to Malta, to defend these operators from any direct actions out at sea by conservationists.

Greenpeace contend that if people want bluefin tuna tomorrow “we need to stop catching them today.” This has led to what they claim is non-violent direct action from their two ships, the Arctic Sunrise and the Rainbow Warrior, to free bluefin tuna from a large cage bound for a Mediterranean tuna farm. “A dramatic two-hour scene ensued with fishermen firing flares and threatening activists with knives. Meanwhile the Maltese Navy joined the fray firing water cannons from a ship and surveying with a helicopter,” GP said.

“We are taking action in the Mediterranean because governments are failing to do so. Releasing bluefin tuna is the only responsible thing to do, for the future of the fish and the future of our oceans. We will confront any and all parts of the Mediterranean bluefin fishery, the most visible example of how politics and fisheries management are failing our oceans.”

Similarly, the more radical Sea Shepherd have conducted an action on Thursday which resulted in the latest government move to deploy the army to escort the tuna ranchers. This resulting situation, irrespective of the violent skirmishes between fishermen and conservationists, doesn’t change the fact that over 80% of bluefin stocks are estimated to have been fished out of the Mediterranean since industrial fishing in this area began. Ranching operations have saved Maltese fishermen’s livelihoods from the 1990s onwards, but have also increased demand for endangered bluefin tuna.

That is why the European Commission ordered some large-scale bluefin fishing vessels back to port early, having already fished their quota in days. What these organisations, like Greenpeace and WWF want, is a ban on bluefin tuna fishing until stocks recover. They claim the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), the fisheries management body, has been itself responsible for pushing bluefin to the brink of extinction. “We have been sounding the alarm on the state of Mediterranean tuna stocks for years. We will continue to take non-violent, direct action until governments live up to their responsibility to safeguard the future of these fish and the livelihoods that depend on them.”