The failure to secure the required radical reform of the tuna fishing industry may have something to do with this. Corruption runs deep in the commercial fishing industry and until that is addressed there are few options left to save the faltering fish populations. The Guardian:
In a statement from the boat, Captain Paul Watson said: "Sea Shepherd's helicopter reconnaissance flight this morning found two fishing vessels. One was engaged in transferring bluefin tuna into one of the two nets being towed by the other vessel.
"The captain of the Cesare Rustico said when questioned that the tuna were caught on the morning of the 14th by the Libyan vessel Tagreft. When we replied that the number of tuna in the cage exceeded the quota for the Tagreft, the captain said the cage also included tuna from seven other Libyan seiners. All the catches were caught on the 14th, the last legal day, according to the captain.
"The problem with this explanation was that we had observed … weather conditions for those two days made fishing virtually impossible.
"The extremely difficult conditions, coupled with the position of the cages only 40 miles off the Libyan coast, when they should have been moving 25 miles a day, suggested to us that the fish were freshly caught within the last three days at the most."
