News
Operation Ocean Killers: Uncovering Hidden Horrors
Monday, 07 Feb, 2022
In the Bay of Biscay off the coast of France, Sea Shepherd has launched a new campaign called Operation Ocean Killers exposing the destruction caused by supertrawlers as they plunder the ocean. During the campaign, our crew witnessed 100,000 dead fish dumped into the sea by the F/V Margiris, the second-largest supertrawler in the world that is banned in Australian waters.
Take a look at the harrowing photos from the campaign below.
The M/Y Age Of Union with a floating carpet of dead fish off the French coast of the Atlantic Ocean.
"What we filmed is a huge patch of what we estimate to be about 100,000 fish, dead fish, that have been thrown overboard by the Margiris (super trawler). It's what we call 'bycatch'."
- President of Sea Shepherd France, Lamya Essemlali.
Sea Shepherd's small boat on a tide of the dead blue whiting.
The dead fish are blue whiting: a sub-species of cod that is used by the industry to mass-produce products such as fish fingers, fish oil and meal.
About the Blue Whiting
The captured Blue Whiting are approximately 27cm long. Surprisingly there is no minimum capture size for this species but we know they aren't sexually mature until 32 cm or around 2 years old. It means all these Blue Whiting were juveniles that weren't old enough to reproduce yet.
France’s maritime minister, Annick Girardin, called the images of the dead fish ‘shocking’.
The F/V Margiris. This killing machine was booted out of Australian waters after a successful campaign by a coalition of organisations including Sea Shepherd.
The small boat Viking keeps an eye on the Margiris while the vacuum pump (black pipe at the left of the net) sucks in the fish from the mouth of the net.
Our crew captured images of two massive tuna fish trapped in the Margiris's net as bycatch as they hauled it in.
Sea Shepherd witnessed four trawlers in the region including the Wiron 5&6.
These vessels operate by dragging giant nets behind them, catching marine life indiscriminately.
Sea Shepherd has filed a complaint against the vessel with the Maritime Gendarmerie of Lorient. The Dutch police are also launching an investigation to determine whether the discarding of these thousands of dead fish was accidental or voluntary.
Read more about how giant factory ships are plundering the ocean, taking the majority of the quotas and public subsidies in this commentary from Lamya Essemlali, President of Sea Shepherd France.