Spanish Tuna Fleet Ordered To Stop Fishing And Leave IO Fishing Groundsff

Source: El Mundo

The owners of the Spanish tuna fleet, consisting of 17 ships, have given orders to all employers operating in Indian Ocean waters to leave the fishing grounds, as a precautionary measure until they can guarantee the security conditions to allow re-fishing. One step is expected to head towards the Seychelles, where most have their bases.

The Spanish Fisheries Confederation (CEPESCA), which are part of the National Association of Shipowners Tuna Freezers (ANABAC) and the Associate Producer of Big Tuna Freezers (OPAGAG), said he “regretted” the kidnapping of  Basque tuna seiner ‘Alakrana’, based in the town of Bermeo Vizcaya.

He assured that the tuna fleet operating in the Indian Ocean is coordinated with the Government of Spain and the command of the Operation Atalanta ‘for solving the kidnapping of the Spanish tuna seiner, “with the priority of ensuring the safety of the 36 crew members who are board.

The Basque Government has informed that the crew are in “good condition”. In total there are 36 persons, of which seven are Basques, nine gallegos, two in Malaysia, three from Senegal, four from Ghana, two from Côte d’Ivoire, Seychelles and one of eight in Indonesia. The state news crew has been known through an email from the captain to the shipping company in which he explains that the crew is “good” although they were  asked not to answer the e-mail.

At the time of the kidnapping, five-thirty in the morning, the tuna was “far” from the perimeter of the security operation ‘Atalanta’, launched in early 2009 by the European Union to curb piracy off the coast of Somalia.

Specifically, the ‘Alakrana’ was fishing about 800 miles from the area of operation of this operation and about 400 miles off the coast of Somalia at the time of his hijack, said the Defense Ministry.

Two Luxembourg planes that are part of the Atalanta operation have flown to the fishing boat and have confirmed the presence of armed persons on board the ship. Also the Spanish surveillance aircraft P-3 Orion has confirmed the presence of two people armed with rifles in the Spanish tuna seiner, which was towing a boat, a typical boat used by Somali pirates.

The Government has constituted a Coordination Committee to discuss everything related to the kidnapping, since, as stated by the Executive Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, the priority is “to preserve the safety of the crew.”

After hearing about the kidnapping of  the Basque fishing boat, an opposition political parties said that pirates operating in the Indian Ocean attacked Spanish vessels because they have no protection from the Marines. They denounced the “passivity” of the Government in the defense of the Spanish fishing in Somali waters and has urged it to urgently take a series of measures to prevent attacks. Other formations such as the BNG and CIU have requested the attendance at the Congress of the defense minister, Carme Chacon, to report on the kidnapping.

The governing party PSOE has pointed to this issue that “is not legally possible” embark Marines in the fishery and has pointed out that “the minister Chacón has done the utmost in response to move the maximum possible resources to national and international zone.”