European fishing pirates hit Pacific: Greenpeace

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSSYD20683820070925

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Illegal fishing vessels linked to large European fishing firms have begun plundering endangered ocean stocks in the Western and Central Pacific, environment watchdog Greenpeace said on Tuesday.

Surveillance of fishing fleets near the tiny Pacific nations of Kiribati and the Cook Islands showed European owned or operated vessels had expanded their range from the Indian and Atlantic Oceans -- mainly in search of tuna.

"Most of the cases documented show clear links to tuna being sold in European markets," Greenpeace said in a new report on what it said were "European sharks" biting the Pacific.

With a global tuna shortage, large European firms named by Greenpeace as Albacora, Calvopesca and Conservas Garavilla, were sending fishing boats into the western Pacific under flags from Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador and the Netherlands Antilles.

<more>