Agent daev reporting from somewhere West of Mauritania, from on board the Greenpeace ship Esperanza, trailing the refrigerated cargo vessel Binar4, as it makes a beeline for Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands – notorious centre of the fish-laundering business. We’ve been close to the Binar4 since before the weekend, as it started steaming north. This morning our folks in Spain presented evidence to the Fisheries Ministry in Madrid, outlining why the ship should be banned from entering the port of Las Palmas when it arrives, in two or three days time.
Our helicopter spotted the Binar 4 on Friday, provoking a dramatic reaction – it was like a cat amongst pigeons. The crews dashed around the decks closing hatches, disengaging the crane hook that was about to transfer a load of fish, and releasing the lines securing the ships to one another. With in half an hour, Binar4 was heading north, while the trawlers heading back into Guinean waters.
We made radio contact with it. The reefers’s officer told us that it making for to Las Palmas, and stated that they had been in international waters to transship, as they were “worried about the army in Guinea Conakry”. They also told us that they had 10,000 boxes of fish on board – and weren’t full! Finally, they told us that they packed up and left as they had “just got a call from Las Palmas” saying that that they needed to go there… just before we discovered them. Coincidence?
Read the blog: 10,000 boxes of stolen fish making for Las Palmas
