Bethune says, “I stood on a beach in Mozambique and watched the poachers just off shore. The sheer numbers of illegal longliners and trawlers raping the waters of fish is astounding. The lack of resources available to stop them is frightening – Mozambique has just one vessel to patrol 3000km of coastline. The poachers continue to take millions of tonnes of fish that does not belong to them with no fear of reprisals. They laugh in the face of the law.”-From the Earth Race Conservation website.
Thanks to Fredrik for sending me this. Pete Bethune is famous for being arrested by Japan during anti-whaling operations a couple of years back. Now he is getting into the game of battling poachers on the high seas, who illegally fish in areas off the coast of Africa. Interesting, and we will see how this goes for them.
Also, I have no details on this other than what is in the video below. He does have a website and you can follow along with his team’s efforts in the future. I have no idea if Mozambique is the country they will work out of, or if they have a different place to go.
On a funny side note, he used Captain Morgan rum to christen his new vessel. Captain Morgan rum got it’s name from the famed ‘privateer’ named Sir Henry Morgan, and I thought that was an interesting choice of bottle. Check it out. –Matt
