In September 2018, Sea Shepherd launched Operation Siso to tackle illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Aeolian Archipelago south of Sicily. Targeting mainly Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) and illegal drift nets they assist the Italian authorities with patrolling and monitoring the South Thyrrenian Sea looking for illegal fishing activities. As part of the media team I joined Operation Siso in June 2019 for two months on the M/Y Sam Simon.

The illegal drift nets used in this part of the Mediterranean Sea are called “spadare” in Italy. They are a type of drift net that was banned worldwide in 2003, yet is still commonly used for swordfish fishing in Italian waters, particularly around the Aeolian Islands - an archipelago that’s listed as a UNESCO heritage site since 2000. Drift netting is a very indiscriminate fishing method that has an extremely high by-catch rate and kills a myriad of non-target species as well - including sperm whales, sea turtles, sharks and other marine mammals. During the two months of patrol we witnessed three blue sharks trapped in illegals drift nets. Two of them died in the nets and one could luckily be rescued (as you can see in the video below). Being entangled in nets under water is most of the times deadly for sharks because their circulatory system requires constant movement in order for them to breath and generate enough heat to maintain their vital organs.

FADs are fairly simple fishing devices, however, not less deadly and dangerous to marine wildlife. Most of the time they consist of floating devices like plastic bottles or barrels as well as palm leaves, which attract small fish, which again attract bigger fish and so on. They are anchored to the bottom in 1500m to 2000m deep water and usually don’t get picked up after the fish have been ‘harvested’, polluting the sea with thousands of kilometres of nylon or polypropylene lines and countless plastic containers.

The Mediterranean Sea is the most over-exploited sea in the world with more than 80% of species being overfished. This is one of the reasons why European fishing fleets have started to move towards African waters, were the ecosystems have not been as pressured as in Europe. This is changing rapidly though with industrial fleets overflowing areas like West Africa, where artisanal fishermen have before sustained themselves from the rich waters but struggle to do so with the industrial exploitation increasing year by year. At the same time the European Union is still subsidising fishing fleets from Europe creating incentives to expand enterprises and modernise vessels in order to fish even more efficiently. It’s finally time to introduce laws and regulations that actually contribute to protect and conserve oceanic ecosystems and marine wildlife. There are a myriad of measurements to counteract overfishing worldwide: more and larger protected areas, reasonable catching quotas based on scientific suggestions, more selective catching techniques and special protection for migratory species. But more than anything else the reduction of our fish consumption.