How Australia Impounded the World's Second-Largest Fishing Trawler 

What is mind blowing is the fact that the guy says the fish was disappearing so he wanted to move to another area to destroy it instead. Does he not see that this is the exact attitude that caused the problem in the first place.

Good work Australia!! As a province in Canada that relies on our fishery to keep our small time fishing families viable and earning a living we must continue to stop these massive vessels from rapping and pillaging our oceans.

They should use that thing to go collect trash and debris in the Pacific gyre.

Some 60 yrs ago, as a middle school student in Asia I enjoyed affordable can of California sardine in tomato sauce when we go on a picnic. When I came to California to go to college in 1965 all the sardine fishing boats and canning factories went out of business because of over-fishing, and the small population of sardines that survived can only be found in South America. Greed killed the golden goose !!!

What he means is I am a greedy git and I want to decimate Australian fish stocks

"This boat allows us to catch high quality fish for human consumption." Uh, pretty sure most boats are capable of that.

An excellent example of why politicians can never be trusted.

This level of greed will destroy fish for everyone. Doesn't mankind ever learn?

I seen the dead loss of a small trawler shoveled overboard I can only imagine what is wasted from a trawler of that size.

There was Japanese super trawler off the coast of SCOTLAND recently fishing our tuna , tuna we're not even aloud to fish for yet it's aloud to Plod on draining the ocean !!

People: "You're over-fishing our waters and destroying local economies!" Company: "But you're all demanding fish at the lowest possible price."

After protests against her use by environmental and fishing industry groups, the Australian government passed legislation prohibiting the trawler from fishing in Australian waters for two years. For this reason, Seafish Tasmania subsequently sold its stake in the vessel to Dutch company Parlevliet & Van der Plas. On March 6, 2013, after six months moored in Australian waters, she left Port Lincoln, having reassumed her original name of Margiris. After leaving Australian waters, the vessel passed through Cook Strait, New Zealand on March 20, 2013. She was now flagged to Lithuania and owned by Atlantic High Sea Fishing Company. Margiris arrived in Port of Penco, Chile on April 7, 2013. The vessel did not berth and steamed out of the bay to fish. In late 2016 she was working along the west coast of Ireland. In July 2017 AFMA came out with a scientifically UNSUPPORTED plan to roll back environmental limits and curtail conservation. Many marine scientists are dismayed. “They’ve nearly halved the level of protection,” says marine ecologist Jessica Meeuwig, director of the University of Western Australia’s Centre for Marine Futures in Perth. “It’s very demoralizing to the scientists who’ve done so much hard work,” Booth adds. “You would not believe the amount of work that’s been put into establishing these places. Then suddenly it all comes off the table.”

And yet, Japan is still running out to international sea and stripping it clean on the pretense of science. What BS!

Use it as evidence, and a lesson for the future generation of things to happen if we do not address this concern of overfishing.

The Margiris is now fishing off the Irish coast (Kerry) for the Dutch under a Lithuanian flag. It now catches 6,000 tonnes per trip. It's a modern day hoover

When it affects us directly then we'll take a stand. Otherwise, other folks can suffer. Greed, hypocrisy and double standards.....never surprises me anyway.

We more recently had the super trawler the Geelong Star, though not as big as this one. It was asked to leave due to by-catch, with too many dolphins being caught in it's nets. I believe that it was also renamed to try and blend in with local boats.

They basically banned it because it is Big. No other reason. if you have 10 medium sized trawlers nothing is mentioned, have one called a super trawler and Guy Sebastian knocking it, suddenly the fisheries are in danger and every idealistic young youth with a phone, facebook and twitter account are suddenly experts on fishing quotas and trawlers. Burke should have known his business, completely dropped the ball on this and then makes up reactionary policy on the run.

I'm so happy these countries are proctecting their waters

Well done ✅👍 Australia

Why would anyone even build a trawler like that it's obscene size is just going to cause anger wherever it goes!

"Allows high quality fish for human consumption" - just rolls effortlessly off his tongue.

This is one of the most irrational reactions I've seen a government take (and I live in the US). Whether you have 10 smaller boats or one big boat, the total bycatch is the same. Furthermore, having one larger boat means it's easier to institute a new lower bycatch design and easier to regulate and monitor one big boat rather than a bunch of smaller ones. As long as you have a set quota for the total catch, it doesn't really matter if it's one boat or a thousand.

there should be a maximum size to the boats being built for fishing,that will regulate the tonnage caught and the time spent at sea,plus a maximum on the fleets of fishing boats built for offshore fishing

"Politician"...by now the worse insult worldwide

It is like a third world decision making. Poor Garry and his partners. I know how bitter the third world decision making is. Till the end of the video I still dont get the answer as to why the government allowed the super trawler to come to Australia in the first place, only to let her sit, rusting there at the port. Could it be that it was all staged in such way by the Australian Government to make the world think of Australia as a champion in advocating environmental protection. As the narrator puts it, " the government decision was right and it was seen as a victory in sustainable fishing, not just in Australia but around the globe"

you all here are blaming the trawlers owners, but ur missing the point, they were given permission from all regulated authorities so they are the ones to blame, not the trawlers owners.

Over fishing kills off the stock, cannot the owner see that point of view? Or is money talking to him?

Who do they think their fooling. They thought it would make them a lot of money. You ozzys are absolute spot on! Your policies and actions you cannot fault! Australia to be the world police please! There’s absolutely no shit from them! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Scrap it then start on the largest trawler , this vessel is for pure. Greed

Have the guy from the fish trawler company swim through the net, then escape.

I like the fish left in the water!

Thank you for the "Skip the intro" link. I thought that deserved a thumbs up.

There's a difference between making a living and over fishing to make millions of dollars, the ocean should not be treated like a business, the fish are not there just to make money, corporations treat sea creatures like they're not even living breathing entities, I'm glad that I live in Australia where the people care about their environment, I hope that never changes.

As a UK resident having our waters plundered by EU Dutch super trawlers, seeing seals drowning and untimately huge profits for the trawler owners I am glad that the Australian government impounded this ship. They went about it in the wrong way, that is true, but unless we as people stop fishing on such a massive scale there will be no fish left for anyone. Its all about making millions quickly, not supplying people with cheap fish, That is the con.." we catch more fish so we can sell it cheaper"... What he should have said was.. we catch more fish so we can make more money faster, and we don't care if we take all the fish, so what, wer'e rich.

The shoud use that ship to clean up ocean

Thanks the gods that at least one of these monsters is out of commission. We can only hope that they've established a precedent. You just can't take more fish off of the planet than the planet can produce!

When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money....First Nations saying

Well done Greenpeace, you preserved the livelihood of the small poor fishermen

As a complete outsider looking in and having no dog in this fight, I can understand both sides. He definitely should have been notified that they were drawing up legislation against him. It was pretty underhanded behavior. However, the protection of the environment is important. There should be legislation to stop this kind of fishing....PERIOD!!

Politician " I´ve never fished a day in my life but I will work toward rules that allow vast sea areas to be stripped of all fish to make a few big business trawler owners ever richer". Fisherman " No one listens to me

whats the difference in 10 boats catching 36000 tons of fish and 1 boat catching 36000 of fish? i just dont understand these greenpeace

watching those seals run out of air really hurt. What kind of person can look at that and be "satisfied with the results."

The current position of MARGIRIS is at North Sea (coordinates 52.45869 N / 4.58077 E) reported 87 days ago by AIS. The vessel MARGIRIS (IMO: 8301187, MMSI 277330000) is a Fishing Vessel built in 1997 (23 years old) and currently sailing under the flag of Lithuania.

Greed and lack of caring for the local areas future is the standard of the big business fishing world. An area once visited by a big trawler is often fishless for two years or more. It happens all over the world ie, France overfished their own fishing area in the Med until the area is completely barren and now are working hard at overfishing the British fishing area - then when the last fish has gone they will go and overfish on someone else´s fishing ground.

give them a fishing rod only

I recall when authorities found a Japanese floating "Gill Net" an dragged it in...2 DAYS and 12 MILES of net....Cant even imagine what kind of nightmare nets this monster has laid. . God help us...we can do better than this.. people.

Taxes at work keeping super trawlers docked & maintained.

Holland sent that ship there, because they have already killed all of their own fish by using SUPER TANKERS like this, massively over fishing.

I hope they bleed the pockets of every investor on that boat and asked the question how does it feel to be caught in the net

I don't get what exactly the problem is, the super trawler just catches the fish it doesn't set the quota. the size of the quota has more to do with the environmental damage than the size of a ship. seems to me this has more to do with feelings than facts which is a hell of a way to run a country.

Perfect example of corporate BIG BUSINESS, TAKE ALL YOU CAN BEFORE ANYONE ELSE, mega greed.

I worked on a similar trawler in the Bering Sea(Alaska). What's missing in this is actual numbers(%) of "bycatch" that would be destroyed and what is a tolerable number(if any).

Greed has no language barrier.

No country needs a ship that big. Money is still root of all evil in the world.

But it's simple!! Don't buy fish!! Go and catch your own!! Only take what you need!! Now that's sustainable and resourceful! This super tanker is just plain GREEDY!!

First of all these boats should not exist. However, if the owners have carefully asked and gotten permission to come and then afterwards the rules are changed, however rightfully that change is, the owners of that boat should be compensated financialy. I would personally go as far as to say australia has to confiscate the boat for demolition but also have to pay the owners because they were at fault for letting them come regardless of all the warnings

We are strip mining the oceans.

Stupidity is the most powerful force in the universe!

I love how people are commenting on fish stocks and thinking that is the reason this ship was halted. watch the video the fish stocks were purchased by the owners of the boat from previous fishermen. It was halted due to the bycatch or accidental fish related deaths and the politicians were spineless people who should have stopped the project at the start. People invested tens of millions into the operation. They should have ben just told no.

They always blame the customer saying we demand cheaper fish on Never In my life demanded cheap fish! What you really want is the biggest slice of the pie by reducing your price

Having watched a great fishery diminishing because of gill netting in California and the draconian measures and regulations to finally stop the utter depletion of the fishery, I can attest to how much profit only commercial fishing can cause a great fishery to crash. Back in the late 70's and 80's the sport fishermen of CA tried to get rid of gill netting. They were not supposed to wrap their nets around kelp beds or catch certain sport fish like the Kelp Bass (calico) which pretty much lived in the Kelp beds. They were allowed to keep the restricted species as "incidental" catch including the endangered black sea bass which can grow to 500 lbs. They ignored the regulations about wrapping kelp beds and they also devised a way to gill net at very deep depths, like 600 ft (100 fathoms) plus. So the deep water rock fish were severely depleted. My dad, if he saw a gill net around a kelp bed would drop his anchor into the net and drag it off and get the fish that were dead out, a gill net kills fish, it doesn't just contain them so you can throw back the "incidental" fish. Now in CA there are very tough fishing regulations and a ban on gill nets, but the commercial fish lobby prevailed for too long. You are not allowed to fish below 360 feet because they depleted the rock fish stocks. Rock fish and Calico-Sand-Spotted bay bass are all very slow growing. It takes 5 years for a Calico bass to grow to 12 inches and the same for rock fish or rock cod as they are commonly called in CA. There are now certain species of fish in CA that never had a seasonal restriction, there is now on many many species. To over-fish a sustainable resource to near depletion is asinine and short-sighted. Mankind has shown itself more than capable of that. Go up to the Northeastern states and look at the cod fishery, almost wiped out. Thank God Canada didn't allow it in their waters so the cod are slowly coming back. Only Maine has a good lobster fishery as well because the lobstermen decided a long time ago to keep it sustainable. Fish which are good for you to eat are getting more and more expensive because of over-fishing. Thankfully here in the USA they have implemented intelligent reform in most cases, though not all.

Good Ship, good trawler! Stand against? What do you buy in a supermarket or eat in a restaurant? This is all show from green peace ...

So sick and tired of greed, no matter the cost to local communities and to our environment.💔

It's a good idea to set up reserves and places that can't be fished to preserve and prevent overfishing.

You have to ask yourself a simple question : Even if a fool proof by-catch net is designed, what's left for the "saved" species to eat ?

One of the Australian fishermen who leased his licence to catch fish to the trawler's owners is now serving time for allegedly importing 1.2 tonnes of coke.

i don't want to eat fish that been sitting out. I can understand the issue of killing local economy though. Lets be honest though, you buy your groceries from big stores, not local gas stations.

This is the worlds largest problem with every industry not just fishing

How does the quota system work? Are fisherman assigned it or is it purchased from the government? It boggles my mind how you can literally make money by selling something that tech belongs to everyone... I'd love to see trawlers completely banned, and move to a massively regulated long lining for commercial fishing.

I would have sunk those ships instead of impounding them

When asked, “why would you want this boat here”? He answers....”To catch QUALITY fish, fit for HUMAN consumption”. Like WTF..!!!?? First of all.. it catches EVERYTHING.. dead or alive..! And fit for human consumption...? I didn’t know there was another option ? Us humans are devastating the oceans every day.. hmm.. sewage, oil platforms that burst, and now Fukushima and massive over fishing. It’s a wonder there’s anything in there. Truly sad.

God bless the Australian public.

they straight up stole that boat. the owners should be compensated.

Horrible ! How dare they try this in Australia.

ship sizes and quotas need to be greatly reduced,,, i myself love eating fish and catching them, lets make sure we can keep doing it

Everyone has to make a livelihood. These super trawlers deprive fishermen in poor countries of their livelihood. This also results in the Piracy on the high seas, which is a direct result of these super trawlers. The super trawlers have "state of the art" technology for fishing as compared to the primitive technology which poor fishermen of different developing countries possess.

Why would a Dutch Vessel come all this way, if they had not destroyed their own fishing!

One super trawler or a couple hundred smaller trawlers, the catch is the same, right? The quotas are still the same, right? And does by-catch still die in small trawlers nets too or so more or less die?

Either way 36.000 ton of fish were caught and the Govt stuffed it up

" i am your captain now "

You stole the content and put your watermark on it. Not cool.

I think the people that approved the licence to this trawler should be investigated and if found that they had did the owners a favour and cant explain why then they should be sacked and imprisoned for a few years which will show public servants that they work for the people and not them selves

Can anyone, tell me what has happened, in the seven years since this was filmed, please???

*If this was america all they would say is "Our hearts and prayers go out to all the dead animals and fishermen who are going hungry and jobless." Then they would pass a law saying that all fishing with anything smaller then a super trawler is illegal and turn maximum number of fish allowed to be caught into minimum. When the fish run out just sell the boat and exhaust another renewable resource past the point it can recover. Instead of making the fish into fresh caught restaurant quality meals, mash it all together into nasty processed frozen food for sale at McDonalds.*

We come from a land down under!

if there's a quota, why does it matter if it's one big ship or many little ships fishing to the quota limit?

It’s no mystery why it was allowed, GREED!

More or less go for bigger fish or go home.Science makes sense,you guy's are right.Leave the smaller fish for feeding Fish.You get a A++.

Politicians and corruptions always go together, you can’t separate them, and that’s the fact.

this is 7 years ago

and when it's all gone what next??

blow these super trawlers out the water . would be a wonderful exercise for the navy.

I'm a fisherman and I'm not going to lie . Trawling and and dragging do destroy alot of shit in the oceans.

The sickened beegis boat sits tied up to the wolf

Why are people so surprised when politicians reverse themselves? Its the age old game of cover your own ass and the hell with everyone else

I smell political Kickbacks and payoffs. (Politician 101)

So my question is - where is that super trawler today in 2019?

maybe they could put the owners of the boat through the net to see if they can make it out the excluder escape hatch

Nets are like Vacuum’s they suck up everything and nothing gets away, only certain types of fish need to be netted the rest hook and line only.