SEAFOOD GUIDE
The PNTL were very keen to check
out these vessels but had no boats
of their own, so we offered to deliver
them on the MV Ocean Warrior. A few
hours later, we boarded some armed
officers and headed off overnight
whilst a larger force drove overland
to meet us at 6am for a dawn raid.
We launched our small boat, again in
darkness, and our crew crept silently
past the fleet, picking up some PNTL
officers on the shore before dropping
them off on several of the fishing
boats. Once secure, Sea Shepherd
crews boarded to assist in searching
the holds and documenting the
catch, while others went through the
documents with the PNTL.
Descending the ladder into the
frozen fish hold, we were met with
carnage on an industrial scale: Sacks
upon sacks of sharks, mostly small
or juvenile, were stacked high in
both freezers. We made some rough
calculations based on numbers per
sack and sacks per row and found that
each boat had between 10,000 and
15,000 sharks on-board. Speaking with
the crew, their last offload had been
two months earlier. These numbers
blew us away, this fleet had already
been fishing for 10 months: How many
sharks had they taken? How could
there be any left?
That evening, the fleet was left
at anchor with only the MV Ocean
Warrior standing between them and
freedom. We patrolled back and forth,
like a guard dog, never anchoring.
Around 8pm, one of the vessels
started to move. We hit the spotlights
and raced towards it, hailing them on
the VHF radio in Chinese, “Stop your
engines immediately, and anchor!”
They complied but something
wasn’t quite right; this was a test.
An hour later, all of the vessels
weighed anchor and started driving
randomly around the bay. Again, we
hit the spotlights and radio whilst
also starting up engine #3. This is
one of the Ocean Warrior’s four huge
engines that powers the fire fighting
water cannon. Once started, I jumped
into the aft facing helm seat and fired
up the water cannon. The bridge haderupted into a hive of activity, all under
the red night light. Captain Mike Dicks
had the helm and was manoeuvering
the Ocean Warrior towards three
of the fishing boats, whilst Jaki, our
Chinese translator, was calling them
to stop their engines again. As we
closed in, we gave them a warning
that if they did not stop, they would
be fired upon with the water cannon,
targeting their communications gear
on top of the bridge. The water cannon
seemed to be a great persuader as
they all stopped immediately.
Like true shepherds of the sea,
we then rounded the fleet back up,
moving stragglers back in towards
the centre before continuing to
patrol. We continued to watch over
the fleet for 10 days whilst the PNTL
awaited the prosecutor to proceed
with the case in the courts. When the
PNTL finally got approval to move all
the vessels to Dili, we departed East
Timor bound for Darwin.
As with most Sea Shepherd
campaigns, they do not end when
the ship reaches port. We have sinceABOVE: Crew of Sea Shepherd MV Ocean Warrior entering the frozen hold of the Fu Yuan Yu 9608
IMAGE: Jake Parker, Sea Shepherd
TOP RIGHT: Drone footage of the Fu Yuan
IMAGE: Sea Shepherd