Tuna protection and piracy: PNA changed the rules of the high seas. Courtesy of Shannon Service In the ice-cold cargo hold of a pirate tuna vessel in the Pacific, I have somehow lost my shoe. Frozen tuna fins slice my unshod foot as I fumble around on all fours, reaching into the gigantic, frigid pile. I had boarded the pirate ship Heng Xing 1 with the crew of a Greenpeace vessel, the Esperanza, which is helping the island nation of Palau patrol the ocean. We caught the Heng Xing 1 and two other ships on the high seas laundering tuna.
Illegally moving tuna from one boat to another hides the fish's origins, making it impossible to know who caught it and where. The tuna itself is mainly skipjack, the kind in cans that America eats at a rate of 2 1/2 pounds per person per year. Farah Obaidullah, the Greenpeace expedition leader, stands nearby with one leg jauntily propped on a pile of frozen fish as her crew speedily documents the plunder. Tuna is the oil of the Western and Central Pacific, with the region’s stock worth $5.5 billion. Businessweek. TV5MONDE : TV internationale francophone : Info, Jeux, Programmes TV, Météo, Dictionnaire. The Diplomat. AJE - Al Jazeera English.