More questions than answers in the 'Alakrana' case

More questions than answers in the 'Alakrana' case
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By Howard Brereton - Editor - Nov 18, 2009 - 3:02 PM

The released 'Alakrana' escorted by the Spanish navy frigates, 'Canarias' and 'Méndez Núñez' - EFE/Ministry of Defence

We have to ask just what was the Spanish fishing boat doing there in the first place

As Spain breaths a collective sigh of relief with the news of the release of the crew of the Basque tuna fishing boat ‘Alakrana’, 47 days after being boarded by a group of Somali pirates, the resolution of the crisis leaves dozens of unanswered questions.

The Partido Popular opposition is already demanding the resignations of three ministers, but surely would do better by asking more pertinent questions of the Government.
Of course in such cases hindsight is a wonderful thing, and no doubt if the Government had it, certain decisions, in particular regarding the capture of the two Somali pirates, would have been handled differently.

As I understand it the Government has helped the owners of the ship to find the (reported) four million dollars ransom paid, but details here are scarce, and it would be interesting to know whether the owners of the boat have to repay the money, and if there was any insurance cover in place.

The British Ambassador to Spain made it clear the U.K. never gives in to such demands, although who knows? I’d be happier with the statement that the U.K. is never seen to have given in to such demands. Here we hope for the very best outcome in the case of Paul and Rachel Chandler who were captured as their yacht sailed between the Seychelles and Tanzania nearly four weeks ago now.

But a British couple on a ‘dream trip’ round the world is a very far cry to the activities of the ‘Alakrana’ in the area. The main question is what the boat was doing there in the first place. Reports say the ‘Alakrana’ was fishing outside a zone protected by the Spanish frigate, ‘Canarias’, despite being issued with warnings against doing so. The Spanish navy has been patrolling the area since the earlier case of the ‘Playa de Bakio’ which was resolved in similar fashion in April last year when a reported 700,000 € was handed over.

How is it possible though under international law for countries to take advantage of an effective lack of government in Somalia and send their boats there not only to capture vast amounts of tuna, but also to dump their toxic waste? What’s more the foreign boats use techniques, such as fine nets, which are prohibited in other areas, and make an estimated 450 million dollars a year by doing so.

Zapatero said on Tuesday, quite rightly, that his first priority was the safety of the Spanish crew, but can that always remain the case when it is established that they are working there illegally. Cannot it be made clear that if they go outside any area the Spanish Government feels the need to protect with a navy frigate, that they do so entirely at their own risk?.

Surely too richer governments should be using their funds to help the poor economies in Africa, to try to ensure that legal activities can produce wealth for the residents, instead of protecting with gunships fishing boats which are in effect carrying out an illegal activity.

The European Union has published a recommendation to try to stop such illegal fishing, known as I.U.U., but as I understand, it is only a guideline, and it only comes into effect on January 1 2010. It tries to establish the principle that such an activity has to be considered entirely a private one.

Let it be clear I am not justifying the terrifying activities of the pirates here, but if the boats weren’t there in the first place the problem would not arise.

Looking to the more distant future, it crosses my mind that in these highly technological days surely it is possible to mark the notes or record their numbers. I’m not sure quite how it could be done without a collapse in world trade, but if technology could be used to make the money handed over as any ransom payment effectively worthless the following day, such incidents would come to an end overnight. At the very least effective tracking of the notes could give important clues as to the identity of the main organizers of what is a sophisticated operation.

In fact something along those lines may be occurring now, because this is one of those stories where we only know what governments are prepared to tell us, and I have the impression that is very little indeed.

More reading - http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/cfp/external_relations/illegal_fishing_en.htm

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