How it all happened:
It all starts back in West Africa, where super trawlers had destroyed fisheries and left locals without jobs.
13 March 2012: Greenpeace highlights the plunder of super trawlers in West Africa.
© Pierre Gleizes / Greenpeace
March 2012: The Government of Senegal bans all foreign trawlers following outrage from fishermen that all their fish had gone.
Having already been kicked out of West Africa, it is announced that the world’s second largest super trawler, the Margiris, will head to Australia to fish redbait and jack mackerel from Perth to southern Queensland.
27 June 2012, Netherlands: You won’t get away that quick! Greenpeace activists lock themselves to mooring lines for over six days and block the Margiris from starting its journey to Australia.
Rebecca Hubbard from Environment Tasmania starts a petition and starts getting the local fishing groups and greenies talking.
Over 13 fishing and environment groups join forces and create the Stop the Super Trawler Alliance
15 August 2012: The Stop the Super Trawler Alliance delivers 44,000 fish, each with the name of an Australian opposing the super trawler on it to Parliament House
11 August 2012: Hundreds of Australians take to the streets for the National Day of Action: “No super trawler!”
15 August 2012: Tasmanian Independent MP Andrew Wilkie sparks an official investigation into the legality of the quota process by the Ombudsman.
21 August 2012: Taswegian fishermen get angry. Hundreds of recreational fishermen take their boats on the road to protest the super trawler fishing Tasmanian waters.
25 August 2012: Rumours that the super trawler may dock in Fremantle bring hundreds of Perth locals out to protest in a human sign.
29 August 2012: A European scientist leaks horrific photos to Greenpeace of by-catch caught in super trawler nets off the coast of Africa. The Daily Telegraph runs a full page story with the photos.
Meanwhile in Port Lincoln…
Tuna baron Haagen Stehr tells it like it is: “You can’t just bring a vacuum cleaner like that into our waters … it’s just wrong.”
30 August 2012: Greenpeace activists intercept the super trawler as it enters Port Lincoln bay making it very clear the ship is not wanted in Australian waters.
1 September 2012: Environment Minister Tony Burke announces on ABC’s Q&A that he will impose conditions on the super trawler so that it can only catch 10 seals per day. Cue outrage from the community “10 seals per day”?!
10 September 2012: Greenpeace hands over its petition to ban all super trawlers to Federal MP Melissa Parke. Over 55,000 signatures in 35 days – that’s more than one person signing up per minute! Melissa Parke announces she will do everything she can to ban super trawlers fishing Australian waters.
11 September 2012: VICTORY! Tony Burke and Joe Ludwig make the announcement we’ve all been waiting for. The super trawler is banned from fishing Australian waters for up to two years while more science is done to test its sustainability.
What now? We continue to campaign around the world to stop overfishing and to ban all super trawlers from all oceans. “Not super trawlers, not here, not anywhere”.
