Poacher 'Thunder' scuttled?

Today (April 6), at approximately 1539 AEDT, at location 0° 20’ North 05° 24' East inside the Exclusive Economic Zone of Sao Tome, the poaching vessel, Thunder, issued a distress signal.

The Captain of the Thunder radioed the Sea Shepherd ship, Bob Barker, reporting that the vessel was sinking.

The Sea Shepherd ship, Bob Barker, immediately answered the distress call.

It was then reported that 40 crew members from the Thunder had abandoned the ship and were in life rafts.

Sea Shepherd confirmed that the Thunder appeared to be taking on water. The Bob Barker was subsequently coordinating a search-and-rescue operation.

Captain Peter Hammarstedt of the Bob Barker said: "We have received a distress call from the Thunder. It appears as though the ship and crew are in a serious situation.

"The Captain of the Thunder has radioed us and said their ship is sinking. We have launched our small boat and are doing everything we can to assist."

SCUTTLED?
But in an udated dispatch, Captain of the Bob Barker, Peter Hammarstedt, said: "When my Chief Engineer boarded the Thunder in the hours leading up to the sinking, he was able to confirm that there were clear signs that the vessel was intentionally scuttled. Usually when a vessel is sinking, the captain will close all hatches so as to maintain buoyancy. However, on the Thunder, the reverse was done — doors and hatches were tied open and the fishhold was opened. It is an incredibly suspicious situation, to say the least."

Sea Shepherd has been able to confirm that, at this time, there have been no reported injuries. The crew of the Thunder have been supplied with food and water, and will now be received by the Sam Simon.

Captain of the Sam Simon, Sid Chakravarty, said: "With the safety of my own crew also in mind, we will now take every precaution to ensure that the crew of the Thunder is retrieved from the lifeboats safely."

The Thunder is the most notorious of six vessels – which Sea Shepherd calls the “Bandit 6” – that are know to engage in Illegal, Unregulated, Unreported (IUU) fishing of vulnerable toothfish in the Southern Ocean.

The Bob Barker has been engaged in a four-month, record-breaking pursuit of the vessel, which has gone from the Southern, to the Indian and the Atlantic Oceans.

On December 25, 2014, the Sam Simon commenced retrieval operations to remove the illegal fishing gear abandoned by the Thunder when it first fled from the Bob Barker. More than 72 kilometres of illegal gillnet was recovered over a three-week period and over 1400 fish, weighing a total of 45,000 kilograms, were returned to the ocean.

On February 25, 2015, the Sam Simon handed over the confiscated fishing gear as evidence of the Thunder's illegal fishing activity to authorities in Mauritius.

In March, another two of the Bandit 6, the Viking and Kunlun, were detained by authorities in South East Asia. The captains of both vessels were arrested for fisheries-related crimes.

The poaching vessels are the target of Sea Shepherd's 11th Southern Ocean Defence Campaign, 'Operation Icefish.'

OPERATION ICEFISH
On December 3, 2014, the crew of The MV Bob Barker departed from Hobart on 'Operation Icefish'.

Four-months later and they have been unrelenting in their pursuit of the most notorious of the "Bandit 6" poaching vessels, the Thunder, first intercepted on the Banzare Bank, Antarctic, on December 17.

While the comforts of home are far away, the Sea Shepherd crew says the rewards of this endeavour are immeasurable. To be surrounded by the wilds of nature is rare gift, enjoyed by just a lucky few in this modern world, and to dedicate oneself to its protection is a true honour, the crew says.

Every day, the Sea Shepherd has said it has remained focused on the target. Inspired by the infinite grandeur and beauty of this planet, as the crew puts it, the Sea Shepherd has been steadfast in its commitment to ridding the Southern Ocean of the last remaining toothfish poachers.... a fitting ending indeed.

Curtains. Roll credits...

Photo credit: Thunder and inboard Bob Barker by Erwin Vermeulen and Simon Ager.