Latest news with #EU-flagged
Scoop
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Greenpeace Activists Disrupt Industrial Fishing Operation Ahead Of UN Ocean Conference
Press Release – Greenpeace GreenpeaceAotearoa is calling on the New Zealand Government to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty and help create global ocean sanctuaries, including in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand signed the agreement in 2023. PACIFIC OCEAN, Friday, 6 June 2025 – Greenpeace activists have disrupted an industrial longlining fishing operation in the South Pacific Ocean, seizing almost 20 kilometers of fishing gear and freeing nine sharks, including an endangered mako, near Australia and New Zealand. WATCH: PHOTO AND VIDEO HERE With an expert team on a small boat releasing more than a dozen animals, crew aboard Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior retrieved the entire longline and more than 210 baited hooks from a EU-flagged industrial fishing vessel, including an endangered longfin mako shark, eight near-threatened blue sharks and four swordfish. The crew also documented the vessel catching endangered sharks during its longlining operation. The at-sea action follows new Greenpeace Australia Pacific analysis exposing the extent of shark catch from industrial longlining in parts of the Pacific Ocean. Latest fisheries data showed that almost 70% of EU vessels' catch was blue shark in 2023 alone. It comes ahead of next week's UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, where world leaders will discuss ocean protection and the Global Ocean Treaty. Georgia Whitaker, Senior Campaigner, Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: 'These longliners are industrial killing machines. Greenpeace Australia Pacific took peaceful and direct action to disrupt this attack on marine life. We saved important species that would otherwise have been killed or left to die on hooks.' 'The scale of industrial fishing – still legal on the high seas – is astronomical. These vessels claim to be targeting swordfish or tuna, but we witnessed shark after shark being hauled up by these industrial fleets, including three endangered sharks in just half an hour. Greenpeace is calling on world leaders at the UN Ocean Conference to protect 30% of the world's oceans by 2030 from this wanton destruction.' GreenpeaceAotearoa is calling on the New Zealand Government to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty and help create global ocean sanctuaries, including in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand signed the agreement in 2023. More than two-thirds of sharks worldwide are endangered, and a third of those are at risk of extinction from overfishing. Over the last three weeks, the Rainbow Warrior has been documenting longlining vessels and practices off Australia's east coast, including from Spain and China. 3. int/node/22532
Scoop
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Greenpeace Activists Disrupt Industrial Fishing Operation Ahead Of UN Ocean Conference
Press Release – Greenpeace GreenpeaceAotearoa is calling on the New Zealand Government to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty and help create global ocean sanctuaries, including in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand signed the agreement in 2023. PACIFIC OCEAN, Friday, 6 June 2025 – Greenpeace activists have disrupted an industrial longlining fishing operation in the South Pacific Ocean, seizing almost 20 kilometers of fishing gear and freeing nine sharks, including an endangered mako, near Australia and New Zealand. With an expert team on a small boat releasing more than a dozen animals, crew aboard Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior retrieved the entire longline and more than 210 baited hooks from a EU-flagged industrial fishing vessel, including an endangered longfin mako shark, eight near-threatened blue sharks and four swordfish. The crew also documented the vessel catching endangered sharks during its longlining operation. The at-sea action follows new Greenpeace Australia Pacific analysis exposing the extent of shark catch from industrial longlining in parts of the Pacific Ocean. Latest fisheries data showed that almost 70% of EU vessels' catch was blue shark in 2023 alone. It comes ahead of next week's UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, where world leaders will discuss ocean protection and the Global Ocean Treaty. Georgia Whitaker, Senior Campaigner, Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: 'These longliners are industrial killing machines. Greenpeace Australia Pacific took peaceful and direct action to disrupt this attack on marine life. We saved important species that would otherwise have been killed or left to die on hooks.' 'The scale of industrial fishing – still legal on the high seas – is astronomical. These vessels claim to be targeting swordfish or tuna, but we witnessed shark after shark being hauled up by these industrial fleets, including three endangered sharks in just half an hour. Greenpeace is calling on world leaders at the UN Ocean Conference to protect 30% of the world's oceans by 2030 from this wanton destruction.' GreenpeaceAotearoa is calling on the New Zealand Government to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty and help create global ocean sanctuaries, including in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand signed the agreement in 2023. More than two-thirds of sharks worldwide are endangered, and a third of those are at risk of extinction from overfishing. Over the last three weeks, the Rainbow Warrior has been documenting longlining vessels and practices off Australia's east coast, including from Spain and China. 3. int/node/22532
Scoop
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Greenpeace Activists Disrupt Industrial Fishing Operation Ahead Of UN Ocean Conference
PACIFIC OCEAN, Friday, 6 June 2025 - Greenpeace activists have disrupted an industrial longlining fishing operation in the South Pacific Ocean, seizing almost 20 kilometers of fishing gear and freeing nine sharks, including an endangered mako, near Australia and New Zealand. WATCH: PHOTO AND VIDEO HERE With an expert team on a small boat releasing more than a dozen animals, crew aboard Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior retrieved the entire longline and more than 210 baited hooks from a EU-flagged industrial fishing vessel, including an endangered longfin mako shark, eight near-threatened blue sharks and four swordfish. The crew also documented the vessel catching endangered sharks during its longlining operation. The at-sea action follows new Greenpeace Australia Pacific analysis exposing the extent of shark catch from industrial longlining in parts of the Pacific Ocean. Latest fisheries data showed that almost 70% of EU vessels' catch was blue shark in 2023 alone. It comes ahead of next week's UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, where world leaders will discuss ocean protection and the Global Ocean Treaty. Georgia Whitaker, Senior Campaigner, Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: "These longliners are industrial killing machines. Greenpeace Australia Pacific took peaceful and direct action to disrupt this attack on marine life. We saved important species that would otherwise have been killed or left to die on hooks." "The scale of industrial fishing - still legal on the high seas - is astronomical. These vessels claim to be targeting swordfish or tuna, but we witnessed shark after shark being hauled up by these industrial fleets, including three endangered sharks in just half an hour. Greenpeace is calling on world leaders at the UN Ocean Conference to protect 30% of the world's oceans by 2030 from this wanton destruction." GreenpeaceAotearoa is calling on the New Zealand Government to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty and help create global ocean sanctuaries, including in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand signed the agreement in 2023. More than two-thirds of sharks worldwide are endangered, and a third of those are at risk of extinction from overfishing. Over the last three weeks, the Rainbow Warrior has been documenting longlining vessels and practices off Australia's east coast, including from Spain and China.
Euronews
28-05-2025
- Science
- Euronews
How shipping in the EU is driving the rapid loss of Arctic sea ice
Black carbon emissions from European shipping in the Arctic have been significantly underestimated, a new study suggests. Produced by the incomplete combustion of fuels in ship engines, black carbon is contributing to the rapid loss of Arctic sea ice. Previous reports have only focused on vessels flying EU flags, overlooking the impact of ships travelling to and from EU ports. 'Our findings show that ships connected to EU trade, regardless of their flag, are major drivers of black carbon pollution in the Arctic,' says Liudmila Osipova, senior researcher at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), and lead author of its new study. 'Recognising these emissions in future policies could help the EU better align its climate goals with its real footprint in the Arctic.' As Arctic shipping activity increases, so too are the associated black carbon (BC) emissions. Between 2015 and 2021, BC emissions in the International Maritime Organisation (IMO)'s definition of the Arctic nearly doubled, according to the study. In the more broadly defined Geographic Arctic, shipping emitted 1.5 kilotonnes (kt) of BC and 12 kt of CO₂ in 2021. About a quarter of these emissions occurred within the IMO definition of the Arctic, indicating a strong growth in BC emissions in the polar area, from 193 tonnes in 2015 to 413 tonnes six years later. This growth trend is concerning, since one tonne of black carbon has a global warming effect equivalent to 900 tonnes of CO₂, as it absorbs more heat in the atmosphere. BC's impact is particularly pronounced in the Arctic. When the sooty particles settle on snow or ice, they reduce the albedo of these surfaces, meaning they reflect less light and so melt faster. This compounds the climate challenges in a region which is already heating up three to four times faster than the global average. Despite its potent climate and health impacts - it is linked to lung cancer, respiratory illness, and cardiopulmonary disease - BC remains one of the most unregulated short-lived climate and air pollutants. Brussels typically only accounts for the emissions from its EU-flagged ships in the Arctic. To give a truer picture of the pollution over which the bloc has control, ICCT has also totted up BC and CO₂ from EU-regulated ships, which answer to the EU Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) system as they voyage between EU ports. These vessels are the bigger polluters, it found. BC and CO₂ emissions from EU-regulated ships of at least 5,000 gross tonnage were nearly double those from EU-flagged ships in the IMO Arctic in 2021. That year, nearly three-quarters of the ships operating in the Geographic Arctic and half of those in the IMO Arctic were navigating to or from EU ports. To address a significant gap in its maritime regulation, the researchers say that EU policymakers could include BC among the pollutants measured and reported within the bloc's MRV system. Beyond improved emissions tracking, there are various ways to reduce BC emissions, such as incentivising ships to use distillate instead of residual fuel, and encouraging the installation of diesel particulate filters on board.
