News
Guilty verdicts in the Thunder case
A significant victory has been made in the fight against illegal fishing. The FV Thunder has long been suspected of illegally catching toothfish in the southern seas. In 2014 Sea Shepherd began an epic chase that transfixed fisheries and law enforcement professionals for 110 days and ended with the suspected scuttling of the Thunder, by its Captain, off the West coast of Africa.
On 12th October 2015 a court in S£o Tom© and Principe found the Captain, Chief Engineer and Second Engineer of the Thunder guilty of various illegal fishing charges. An announcement of the Thunder convictions was made at the International Symposium on FishCRIME where Aduke Kupolati, Nigerian Fisheries Authority, described the collaboration between the Nigerian government and Sea Shepherd. “The de-registering of the FV Thunder by Nigeria gave other countries the opportunity to arrest the vessel should it have called in their ports,‚ explained Francis Iyex Omiuno of the Nigerian Maritime and Safety Administration. The Thunder was left with nowhere to run.
The Supreme Court of S£o Tom© and Prncipe found Captain Luis Alfonso Rubio Cataldo of Chile, Chief Engineer Agustin Dosil Rey of Spain and Second Mechanic Luis Miguel Perez Fernandez, also of Spain guilty of forgery, pollution, damages to the environment and recklessness. The three have been sentenced to between 32 and 36 months in jail each for recklessness and forgery, and have been fined EUR 15 million for charges relating to pollution and damage to the environment.
“Although S£o Tom© and Prncipe lacked the jurisdiction to directly address the case of illegal fishing in the Antarctic, they showed the courage and willingness to still tackle it indirectly as seen with the charge of falsification of the fishing license. In doing so, they have set an example to other nations around the world in the fight against the endemic issue of IUU fishing.‚ Commented Sid Chakravarty, Sea Shepherd.
Per Erik Bergh, Stop Illegal Fishing welcomed the conviction “it is great to see cooperation of this kind in action, and even better that it has resulted in a conviction. All too often the criminals escape justice through out of court settlements and by exploiting weaknesses and loopholes in laws and procedures. SIF is pleased to have played a supportive role in communicating intelligence information to the African states and providing legal and technical advice to the coastal States involved.‚
“Transnational fisheries crimes are complex and far-reaching, but the successful outcome of the Thunder case demonstrates how, when countries work together to share intelligence and connect investigations, these criminals can be caught and their networks dismantled,‚ said David Higgins, head of INTERPOL’s Environmental Security unit.‚
Photo: The FV Thunder – taken by Sea Sheperd