h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Press release from COLTO (Coalition of Legal Toothfish Operators)

http://www.colto.org/

A legal Australian toothfish operator is in hot pursuit of two alleged pirate boats after one of them was caught red handed fishing illegally in waters protected by an international convention designed to conserve the unique marine life of the Southern Ocean.

The boat was photographed hauling its lines by the Australian boat the Southern Champion, which is owned by Australian COLTO member
Austral Fisheries.

The owners of the Southern Champion tasked the boat to go and look
for the presence of illegal boats following an incident earlier this week when another Australian legal toothfish boat the Janus came across at least three boats in CCAMLR waters (The Convention on the
Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources...pronounced
camaalar)

There are no legal licences to fish inside CCAMLR waters other than
those issued by the Australian government.

At about 1.30 pm Western Australian time today Steve Paku, skipper of
the Southern Champion, contacted the Perth office of Austral with the
news that they had sighted the first boat still fishing, and just 100
metres outside Australian waters.

Pictures and video were taken of the pirate boat and Captain Paku
advised the pirate it had been sighted fishing illegally and reported to authorities.

The boat had no visible flag or call sign, no name or homeport on the
stern and the name on the bow was partially missing. This is contravention of International Maritime Law and indicates the boat is
‘stateless”, operating as a true pirate.

According to a COLTO spokesperson, the boat is called the Strela and
well known to be an IUU (illegal, unregulated and unreported) operator.

It was identified as one of the ‘Alphabet Boats’ in a publication
distributed last year, and in official CCAMLR meeting documents as a
renowned IUU boat flagged to Russia.

This was after documentation on board an illegal operators boat
apprehended by Australian authorities identified as one of the literal ‘alphabet’ of boats with professionally coordinated fishing activities, transshipment of fish at sea, refueling at sea, and operational techniques designed to evade apprehension.

The COLTO said it was hopeful that appropriate actions would be
taken by CCAMLR and flag states to prevent this activity continuing.

COLTO’s objective include stopping any toothfish being taken by IUU
operators before the continuing criminal activities put all legal toothfish fishermen out of out of business, the destruction of unique ecosystems and the destruction of toothfish stocks.