(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
[fish] Drevik International has traded at least one cargo of fish originating from the pirate fleet on the Reykjanes Ridge. This confirms the CEO of the company, Ole Johan Drevik. Drevik International is several times linked to the sale of illegal fish.
Several other Norwegian fish buyers are dealing with pirate trawls that are fishing illegal fishing
Reykjanesryggen, claims the head of the control section of the Directorate of Fisheries, Einar Ellingsen.
To Ny Tid, Ellingsen says that they have not had enough resources to expose more people who sell illegal fish, but that they will be able to prioritize these cases by the autumn.
The pirate trawlers on the Reykjanes Ridge sell the fish to freezer boats that resell to buyers from all over the world. One of these fish buyers is the Ålesund company Drevik International, which this winter was linked to the purchase of illegal fish from the Russian trawler "Elektron".
Ole Johan Drevik of Drevik International admits to Ny Tid that in the summer of 2005 they sold the cargo to the freezer boat "Sunny Jane" which was in the Moroccan port city of Agadir.
The Russian-owned freezer is registered in
Belize, and in June 2005, was filled with scraps from the pirate fleet on the Reykjanes Ridge. At first they tried to load the fish in the Dutch port of Eemshaven, but were rejected because the cargo was illegally fished. Then they must have tried in a Scottish port, but were also rejected here, before the trip to Morocco and the port city of Agadir. With the help of Norwegian Drevik International, "Sunny Jane" managed to get rid of the cargo.
Ole Johan Drevik tells Ny Tid that they were not aware that "Sunny Jane" had pirate fish in the cargo.
- If we had had the information about where the cargo came from, we would not have completed the assignment, Drevik says.
This excuse is the response of Truls Gulowsen in Greenpeace Norway.
- It is incredible that Drevik International does not check better where the fish they buy comes from. The redfish population is threatened, and the boats that delivered the cargo to "Sunny Jane" have for several years been on the blacklist of the Fisheries Commission Nafo. The Directorate of Fisheries in Bergen also had the boats on its blacklists. In addition, none of the boats had legal quotas, he says.
Greenpeace has followed the load carried by Drevik last year and can prove that the recipient was the major Japanese seafood producer Hanwa. Greenpeace calls for clearer willingness by the authorities of NEAFC countries to intervene and stop illegal fishing in international waters. n
PIRATE trawlers
- At least nine blacklisted fishing boats without quotas have been observed on the Reykjanes Ridge in recent weeks.
- NEAFC (The North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission) has an office in London and regulates, among other things, fishing for hake and redfish in the eastern Atlantic. Members today are Denmark (on behalf of the Faroe Islands and Greenland), the EU, Norway, Russia, Estonia and Iceland.
- Nafo (North Atlantic Fisheries Organization) regulates fishing in the western Atlantic.
Sources: Enniberg, Greenpeace and NEAFC
