BraveheartNaija A
110-day cat-and-mouse chase spanning from Antarctic waters to the coast of west
Africa had an unlikely end when the crew of an alleged poaching vessel were
rescued by conservationists pursuing them.
Environmentalist group Sea Shepherd had been tailing the Thunder
-- subject of an Interpol "purple notice" for suspected fraud and
fisheries-related crimes -- since its ship the Bob Barker encountered it in the
Southern Ocean several months ago.
The pursuit ended early Monday in the Gulf of Guinea, off the
coast of west Africa, when the Bob Barker received a distress call from the
Thunder.
"We were literally a few hundred meters away; they said the
ship was sinking and they were abandoning the Thunder," said Sea Shepherd
spokesman Adam Burling.
"We invited the crew -- 40 of them -- on board, had a medical
officer check them over, provided them with food and water."
Deliberately sunk?
Bob Barker Captain Peter Hammarstedt said the crew rescued from
the ship had been handed over to the Sao Tome coastguard early Tuesday.
He said he hoped the authorities would work with Interpol to
prosecute those operating the vessel.
"We obviously want to see the captain of the Thunder
prosecuted for his offenses," he told BraveheartNaija by
phone from the Bob Barker, at sea to the west of Sao Tome.
Hammarstedt said he believed the Thunder was deliberately sunk to
destroy physical evidence of illegal fishing.
"I'm 100% confident that the captain of the Thunder destroyed
his own ship," he said.
Hammarstedt said he had managed to send three crew members aboard
the abandoned Thunder before it went down.
"Usually what happens when a vessel is sinking is the master
will ensure all compartments and hatches are shut so as to maintain
buoyancy," he said.
"On the Thunder, all the hatches had been opened, including
the hatch leading to the fish hold."
Possible evidence recovered
He said his crew had retrieved computers, mobile phones and other
devices from the Thunder that would be handed over to assist any investigation.
They had also retrieved a fish from the ship's fish hold, which he
said was about a quarter full.
He said the fish was a toothfish, the prized stock his
organization claims the Thunder was illegally catching when they were
encountered in the Southern Ocean.
More surprising was the reaction of the captain of the Thunder as
his ship went under, he claimed.
"When the vessel went completely under the water, the captain
of the Thunder, who was in a life raft at the time, started cheering and
applauding, which was very unusual behavior for a skipper who had just lost his
ship," he said.
Long chase
The pursuit of the Thunder began after the Bob Barker encountered
the vessel off the coast of Antarctica, said Burling.
He claimed the vessel was found with its nets in the water,
illegally catching Patagonian toothfish.
The Thunder dropped its nets and left the scene; a second Sea
Shepherd vessel that was brought in to retrieve the net found about $3 million
of toothfish catch in about 72km of illegal gillnet, he claimed.
"That's why they're out there in these shadowlands, these
unpatrolled remote regions," he said.
Meanwhile the Bob Barker, supported by a second Sea Shepherd
vessel, pursued the Thunder all the way to the Gulf of Guinea.
During that time, Burling claimed, the Bob Barker narrowly avoided
being rammed by the fishing vessel, while its smaller boats were struck with
grappling hooks.
Successful rescue
The rescue had gone smoothly despite the months of tensions
between the two vessels, said Burling.
"We worried what they might be like to our crew, whether they
might be hostile or violent to us," he said.
But the Indonesian crew who made up the majority of those on board
the Thunder seemed "very relieved" to be rescued.
The officers -- who he believed were Spanish -- were less so.
"Perhaps they would have preferred to have been rescued by
someone else, but given the location there was really no other option," he
said.
Purple notice
An Interpol "purple
notice," released
at the request of New Zealand in December 2013, put out a global call for
information on the Thunder, as well as information on "the individuals and
networks that own, operate and profit from the illegal actions of the
vessel."
It said the vessel had changed its name, national registration and
other characteristics a number of times to avoid detection of its illegal
fishing activities, and had sailed under the names "Wuhan N 4" and
"Kuko," and under the flags of Nigeria and Mongolia.
The Interpol notice said it had "conflicting
information" about the identity of the vessel's current operator, but said
it had previously been registered as owned by companies in Spain, the
Seychelles and Nigeria.
Interpol on Tuesday confirmed the purple notice remained in place.
It said it had monitored "the situation with regards to Thunder" and
noted that all the vessel's crew members were safely ashore.
"Interpol does not conduct investigations itself; however, we
remain available to support any national law enforcement authorities with
jurisdiction in this case if such assistance is requested," it told BraveheartNaija .
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