The west has been very quick to judge the extreme acts of piracy at sea off the east coast of Africa - but how did it start and why?
The roots of the Somali piracy problem lie in illegal fishing vessels working off the Somalian coast, starving the population and forcing them to choose between piracy and starvation - a simplistic but accurate description that brings us to how things have escalated initially motivated by basic human desire - a well documented human response and know to students of psychology the world over as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - and they begin with food, it's that simple.
Video and story courtesy of Marine & Oceans
An exceptional description of Aart Zeeman (images of Ton van der Plas), on the Somali pirates, produced by KRO broadcast company. Confidence of a pirate questioned in this paper: "When you want to survive, one exit, find money. This means: search foreigners with white skin (...). We're not afraid of ships of war. Even if they shoot at us, we board. We do not fear one thing - much worse than the guns and bullets - hunger! Bring your aircraft, your boat, your submarines, we do not fear. " M & O chose to disseminate this document so that we learn that the European Force struck a base of pirates onshore in Somalia, under the new mandate given to it by the United Nations until 2014.
Does this have any relevance to the lives of working fishermen in the UK?
Many think so. The current Fishermen's Friend movement is seeking to publicise the rise of powerful business interests buying up UK fishing rights by the back door through the management and ownership of quotas. With the POs responsible for the biggest vessels in the UK fleet, under 10m and other inshore fishermen are slowly, quickly in some cases losing the power to make a living from fish just as if illegal fishing vessels were entering their waters and taking the fish. Things are so bad for these fishermen that NUTFA has taken the unprecedented step of joining forces with Greenpeace to try and save the livelihoods of working UK inshore fishermen who feel they are being forced to the wall by crude fisheries management that fails to take into account the sustainable working practices that they have been using for years. They are unlikely to resort to the desperate measures of their Somalian brothers of course, though some might see an alliance with Greenpeace as an act betrayal bordering on insanity - desperate times need desperate measures and it is good to see both sides willing to put the past behind them and move forward - witness the state of Palestine and the sad state of the West Bank as a glaring example of where this has yet to happen,
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| The Sea Spray's quota has now been slashed to just 2.25 tonnes. |
Here are two relevant comments posted below from the Guardian's article earlier this week:
"This is the sort of issue, and approach to the issue, that saw my wholehearted support for GreenPeace in the distant past, before you became increasingly associated with "opposition to everything", much of which conflicts with my views of best outcomes for humanity and the planet in the short, medium, and long term. Congratulations on an excellent choice of target, and please continue to raise the profile of your activities in this area."Interesting to note the reaction and action suggested in this comment apropros the story at the beginning of this post!
"Overfishing is not simply a UK problem, nor is the problem restricted to one or two types of fish that we like to eat. Shortsighted greed is destroying entire ocean ecologies with practices such as driftnet fisheries that kill everything and then throw away anything that isn't being canned that day. It's hard to believe flying a pennant on small fishing vessels will accomplish anything. It's time to declare war on the piracy of fish stocks before the ocean becomes a dead place. The piracy of fish stocks is ecological terrorism. Send in the navy."