On the high seas, on March 9th this year, armed Canadian Coastguards, alledgedly acting on a conservation mission, proceeded to arrest a Spanish fishing vessel, the ESTAI. Against the will of her master and crew, they pursued her for over 6 hours, blasting the crew with powerful water jets. The latter had to cut the nets in order to escape from this harassment and persecution, following one endless month of intimidation carried out night and day, without surcease, by low-level surveyance flights, against their legal rights to fish, urging and pressing them to stop their fishing activities and leave international waters adjacent to the Nose and Tail of the Grand Banks near Newfoundland. The Basques and Celts whose descendants could have been among the fishermen involved in this Drama had been sailing and fishing in those very same grounds ever since the XIV Century.
Four fishing vessels came to the rescue of the Estai. During this incredible incident on the High Seas, they tried to defend her encircling her on the right and left, front and rear, (from prow to stern, lar-board to star-board) in a desperate attempt to form a shield against the ever powerful Coastguards, in the midst of violent waves, intense fog, low-level air raids and deafening warnings. The harrasment and intimidation against the fishing vessels lasted several months, in an intent to disrupt their legal fishing activities which were being conducted according to the rules of International Law, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, regional agreements such as NAFO and the specific mandate of the Council of Ministers of the European Union.
An innovative project about a Program firmly supported on the following tripodal actions-ideas: Conservation, integration and information could be progressively developed, by anyone willing to go backstage or at the doorsteps of this drama involving these 23 men on the High Seas in the North Atlantic.
I was in St-John's, Newfoundland, to receive the Estai, her officers and her crew and over four long days, I lived this nightmare , a dramatic story immersed in an impressive public relations campaign against the ship, her crew and her fishermen, as well as their catch. A dramatisation magnified by extremely agressive and unstoppable messages on all the media, while the men of the ESTAI gathered around me to defend their integrity, their rightness and the product of five long months' work at sea: their catch. Not to mention the crew's loneliness, fears and dismay which affected them deeply, both emotionally and physically.
The outcome of this story about the ESTAI could be the basis for a "Club of Survival", open to anyone who wishes to participate with their actions-ideas, without any constraint pertaining to nationality, faith, belief or age. Eco-conservation, race integration and electronic information will be the three broad issues at stake. I am in a position to describe each and every moment before and after the "ESTAI Operation", one of the only three acts of piracy perpetrated on the High Seas this Century, the other two being the Santa Maria by Galvao in Portugal in the early 70's and the Achille Lauro by the PLO, off the coast of Alexandria. I also have a personal set of 40 pictures, taken by me, inside and outside the ESTAI, depicting the European Ambassadors, the Captain and the Crew.
The general outline of this story can be accessed at "Fisheries".
But this is only a useful projection suitable and open to all kinds of audiences. I believe that this could be an interesting environmental, diplomatic and futuristic issue of conservation, enforcement and protection of the sea environment, including its men, the ocean ecosystem and the general framework of our present EcoInfo Society.
Did anyone think about the possibility of creating a Club of "Friends of the fishermen of Galicia and Newfoundland" in the same way that the Basque fishermen have just done at the Spanish/French border? This is an idea that I had already expressed at the end of my Letter to the Editor of the "Globe and Mail" entitled: "Spain and Canada: Keep Talking", published on 12 April.
Spanish and French fishermen, who use traditional fishing gears and are grouped within the "Itsas Geroa" Association (Future of the Sea) will request from the European Union the creation of a reservation in the south of the Gulf of Biscay where fishing with drift nets (redes de volanta), or pelagic dragging will be forbidden, according to an announcement they made yesterday to the members of the Association.
Yesterday their members read a communiqu‚ on Faisanes Island which delimits the French-Spanish border, denouncing "squandering and destructive" fishing, such as pelagic dragging or drift nets. The Association also reported that it will intervene before the European Union Authorities and that it may set up a NGO. aiming at "the recognition of the specificity of the Basque fisheries".
In this context, the Association pointed out yesterday that the stocks of certain species of fish such as hake, sea bass, sole and other species have significantly diminished, whereas sea bream has practically disappeared over the last five years. However, anchovy and tuna stocks remain the same "because a selective fishing system has been maintained", according to Esteban Olaizola, President of the Hondarribia Association.
This initiative by Spanish and French fishermen has been supported by Greenpeace. A representative of the latter was present at that meeting and stated that the creation of such associations which start at the fishermen level and extend to other collectivities is essential for the conservation of resources.