Reeled in: activists battle industrial fishing off Aust
Operating from a small inflatable boat, the activists confronted a European Union-flagged industrial fishing vessel, which had just left the Lord Howe Rise and South Tasman Sea, where it fished for 160 days last year, according to Greenpeace.
The action comes ahead of the UN Ocean Conference in France, as activists warn Australia's oceans face growing threats from climate change, habitat loss, and industrialisation.
Leaders from the Australian Marine Conservation Society and Greenpeace are urging the federal government to honour its climate commitments at the upcoming conference.
They also called for the establishment of the Global Ocean Treaty within the first 100 days of government and the proposal of large marine sanctuaries, including in the Tasman Sea, where activists recently intercepted a large fishing vessel.
Georgia Whitaker, senior campaigner for Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said the scale of industrial fishing on the high seas is "astronomical."
During the rescue operation, she said activists witnessed "shark after shark being hauled up by industrial fleets, including three endangered sharks in just half an hour".
Activists retrieved an entire fishing line, including more than 210 baited hooks from the vessel including an endangered longfin mako shark, eight near-threatened blue sharks and four swordfish.
"These longliners are industrial killing machines. Greenpeace Australia Pacific took peaceful and direct action to disrupt this attack on marine life," Ms Whitaker said.
"We saved important species that would otherwise have been killed or left to die on hooks."
Greenpeace said they have been documenting longlining vessels and practices off Australia's east coast, including from Spain and China over the past three weeks.
More than two-thirds of sharks worldwide are endangered, and a third of those are at risk of extinction from overfishing, according to 2024 report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Environmental activists have intercepted an industrial longline fishing operation off the coast of Australia, seizing hundreds of baited hooks and releasing more than a dozen of marine animals, including an endangered shark.
Operating from a small inflatable boat, the activists confronted a European Union-flagged industrial fishing vessel, which had just left the Lord Howe Rise and South Tasman Sea, where it fished for 160 days last year, according to Greenpeace.
The action comes ahead of the UN Ocean Conference in France, as activists warn Australia's oceans face growing threats from climate change, habitat loss, and industrialisation.
Leaders from the Australian Marine Conservation Society and Greenpeace are urging the federal government to honour its climate commitments at the upcoming conference.
They also called for the establishment of the Global Ocean Treaty within the first 100 days of government and the proposal of large marine sanctuaries, including in the Tasman Sea, where activists recently intercepted a large fishing vessel.
Georgia Whitaker, senior campaigner for Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said the scale of industrial fishing on the high seas is "astronomical."
During the rescue operation, she said activists witnessed "shark after shark being hauled up by industrial fleets, including three endangered sharks in just half an hour".
Activists retrieved an entire fishing line, including more than 210 baited hooks from the vessel including an endangered longfin mako shark, eight near-threatened blue sharks and four swordfish.
"These longliners are industrial killing machines. Greenpeace Australia Pacific took peaceful and direct action to disrupt this attack on marine life," Ms Whitaker said.
"We saved important species that would otherwise have been killed or left to die on hooks."
Greenpeace said they have been documenting longlining vessels and practices off Australia's east coast, including from Spain and China over the past three weeks.
More than two-thirds of sharks worldwide are endangered, and a third of those are at risk of extinction from overfishing, according to 2024 report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Environmental activists have intercepted an industrial longline fishing operation off the coast of Australia, seizing hundreds of baited hooks and releasing more than a dozen of marine animals, including an endangered shark.
Operating from a small inflatable boat, the activists confronted a European Union-flagged industrial fishing vessel, which had just left the Lord Howe Rise and South Tasman Sea, where it fished for 160 days last year, according to Greenpeace.
The action comes ahead of the UN Ocean Conference in France, as activists warn Australia's oceans face growing threats from climate change, habitat loss, and industrialisation.
Leaders from the Australian Marine Conservation Society and Greenpeace are urging the federal government to honour its climate commitments at the upcoming conference.
They also called for the establishment of the Global Ocean Treaty within the first 100 days of government and the proposal of large marine sanctuaries, including in the Tasman Sea, where activists recently intercepted a large fishing vessel.
Georgia Whitaker, senior campaigner for Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said the scale of industrial fishing on the high seas is "astronomical."
During the rescue operation, she said activists witnessed "shark after shark being hauled up by industrial fleets, including three endangered sharks in just half an hour".
Activists retrieved an entire fishing line, including more than 210 baited hooks from the vessel including an endangered longfin mako shark, eight near-threatened blue sharks and four swordfish.
"These longliners are industrial killing machines. Greenpeace Australia Pacific took peaceful and direct action to disrupt this attack on marine life," Ms Whitaker said.
"We saved important species that would otherwise have been killed or left to die on hooks."
Greenpeace said they have been documenting longlining vessels and practices off Australia's east coast, including from Spain and China over the past three weeks.
More than two-thirds of sharks worldwide are endangered, and a third of those are at risk of extinction from overfishing, according to 2024 report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Environmental activists have intercepted an industrial longline fishing operation off the coast of Australia, seizing hundreds of baited hooks and releasing more than a dozen of marine animals, including an endangered shark.
Operating from a small inflatable boat, the activists confronted a European Union-flagged industrial fishing vessel, which had just left the Lord Howe Rise and South Tasman Sea, where it fished for 160 days last year, according to Greenpeace.
The action comes ahead of the UN Ocean Conference in France, as activists warn Australia's oceans face growing threats from climate change, habitat loss, and industrialisation.
Leaders from the Australian Marine Conservation Society and Greenpeace are urging the federal government to honour its climate commitments at the upcoming conference.
They also called for the establishment of the Global Ocean Treaty within the first 100 days of government and the proposal of large marine sanctuaries, including in the Tasman Sea, where activists recently intercepted a large fishing vessel.
Georgia Whitaker, senior campaigner for Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said the scale of industrial fishing on the high seas is "astronomical."
During the rescue operation, she said activists witnessed "shark after shark being hauled up by industrial fleets, including three endangered sharks in just half an hour".
Activists retrieved an entire fishing line, including more than 210 baited hooks from the vessel including an endangered longfin mako shark, eight near-threatened blue sharks and four swordfish.
"These longliners are industrial killing machines. Greenpeace Australia Pacific took peaceful and direct action to disrupt this attack on marine life," Ms Whitaker said.
"We saved important species that would otherwise have been killed or left to die on hooks."
Greenpeace said they have been documenting longlining vessels and practices off Australia's east coast, including from Spain and China over the past three weeks.
More than two-thirds of sharks worldwide are endangered, and a third of those are at risk of extinction from overfishing, according to 2024 report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
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The chair of the negotiations Ecuador's Luis Vayas Valdivieso adjourned the session on Friday with a pledge to resume talks at an undetermined later date, drawing weak applause from exhausted delegates who had worked into the early hours. French ecology minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher told the meeting's closing session that she was "enraged because despite genuine efforts by many, and real progress in discussions, no tangible results have been obtained". In an apparent reference to oil-producing nations, Colombia's delegate Haendel Rodriguez said a deal had been "blocked by a small number of states who simply did not want an agreement". Diplomats and climate advocates had warned earlier this month that efforts by the European Union and small island states to cap virgin plastic production - fuelled by petroleum, coal and gas - faced opposition from petrochemical-producing countries and the US under President Donald Trump. US delegate John Thompson from the State Department declined to comment as he left the talks. The path forward for the negotiations is uncertain. UN officials and some countries, including Britain, said negotiations should resume but others described a broken process. "It is very clear that the current process will not work," South Africa's delegate said. More than 1000 delegates have gathered in Geneva for the sixth round of talks,after a meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in South Korea in late 2024 ended without a deal. Negotiations had gone into overtime on Thursday as countries scrambled to bridge deep divisions over the extent of future curbs. Many, including Danish environment minister Magnus Heunicke, who negotiated on behalf of the EU, were disappointed that the final push did not yield any results. "Of course we cannot hide that it is tragic and deeply disappointing to see some countries trying to block an agreement," he told reporters while vowing to keep working on the treaty necessary to tackle "one of the biggest pollution problems we have on earth". "We did not get where we want but people want a deal," she said. The most divisive issues include capping production, managing plastic products and chemicals of concern, and financing to help developing countries implement the treaty. Anti-plastics campaigners voiced disappointment at the outcome but welcomed states' rejection of a weak deal that failed to place limits on plastics production. "No treaty is better than a bad treaty," said Ana Rocha, global plastics policy director from environmental group GAIA. Delegates discussing the world's first legally binding treaty to tackle plastic pollution failed to reach consensus, diplomats say, voicing disappointment and even rage that the 10-day talks produced no deal. Delegates had been seeking a breakthrough in the deadlocked United Nations' talks in Geneva, but states pushing for an ambitious treaty said that the latest text released overnight failed to meet their expectations. The chair of the negotiations Ecuador's Luis Vayas Valdivieso adjourned the session on Friday with a pledge to resume talks at an undetermined later date, drawing weak applause from exhausted delegates who had worked into the early hours. French ecology minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher told the meeting's closing session that she was "enraged because despite genuine efforts by many, and real progress in discussions, no tangible results have been obtained". In an apparent reference to oil-producing nations, Colombia's delegate Haendel Rodriguez said a deal had been "blocked by a small number of states who simply did not want an agreement". Diplomats and climate advocates had warned earlier this month that efforts by the European Union and small island states to cap virgin plastic production - fuelled by petroleum, coal and gas - faced opposition from petrochemical-producing countries and the US under President Donald Trump. US delegate John Thompson from the State Department declined to comment as he left the talks. The path forward for the negotiations is uncertain. UN officials and some countries, including Britain, said negotiations should resume but others described a broken process. "It is very clear that the current process will not work," South Africa's delegate said. More than 1000 delegates have gathered in Geneva for the sixth round of talks,after a meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in South Korea in late 2024 ended without a deal. Negotiations had gone into overtime on Thursday as countries scrambled to bridge deep divisions over the extent of future curbs. Many, including Danish environment minister Magnus Heunicke, who negotiated on behalf of the EU, were disappointed that the final push did not yield any results. "Of course we cannot hide that it is tragic and deeply disappointing to see some countries trying to block an agreement," he told reporters while vowing to keep working on the treaty necessary to tackle "one of the biggest pollution problems we have on earth". "We did not get where we want but people want a deal," she said. The most divisive issues include capping production, managing plastic products and chemicals of concern, and financing to help developing countries implement the treaty. Anti-plastics campaigners voiced disappointment at the outcome but welcomed states' rejection of a weak deal that failed to place limits on plastics production. "No treaty is better than a bad treaty," said Ana Rocha, global plastics policy director from environmental group GAIA.
