01 September
2006 - Cartagena, Spain — It's a bluefin tuna
graveyard, white crosses float next to tuna ranch
cages. We end our three month Mediterranean tour
back where we started, in Spain, highlighting
the desperate state of bluefin tuna stocks.
During the tour that started
with the launch of the Greenpeace tuna report
onboard the Esperanza in Barcelona, we've confirmed
our worst fears about the threats facing the Mediterranean
Sea. Bluefin tuna are being plundered, illegal
driftnets known as "walls of death"
continue to be used despite their prohibition
and the rampant overdevelopment of the Mediterranean
coastline is destroying coastal ecosytems.
However, as we showed with the
proposal for a network of marine reserves for
the Mediterranean, there is still hope.
As the Rainbow Warrior concludes
the 2006 tour of the Mediterranean, we look back
on some of the highlights and many suprises from
the past three months. From diving and documenting
the beauty below the surface, confiscating illegal
driftnets and rescuing sailors from sinking boats
to being blockaded by the fishermen in Marseille,
it's certainly been a memorable tour.
