The fishermen attacked the Steve Irwin, owned by the U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, by hurling heavy metal chain links aboard. They also attempted to lay a rope in front of the activists' boat, hoping to disable it. Those aboard the Sea Shepherd responded with water from fire hoses and stink bombs.
Several hundred feet above the fray circled a French fighter jet, summoned by the fishermen
- who claimed, falsely, that activist divers were trying to cut their net.
The 59.5-meter (195-foot) Steve Irwin, named after the Australian conservationist who died in 2006, left the Sicilian port of Syracuse early Friday, heading for a rendezvous with a smaller, faster sister ship, the Brigitte Bardot, just north of Libyan waters. The Bardot had traversed the area and reported that more than 20 purse seiners were operating there.
Purse seiners are boats that deploy large nets that draw closed like a purse, ensnaring the tuna. The fish are then sometimes put in floating net-cages and slowly towed to port.
The Sea Shepherd is on a mission to disrupt boats that are fishing illegally or have exceeded their quotas. The stock of bluefin tuna, which spawn in the Mediterranean and then swim out to the North Atlantic, has been depleted to the point that some experts fear it will soon collapse.
The confrontation began to take shape at first light as the sun lifted and blazed a bright white stripe across the sea. Ten purse seiners floated several miles from the Steve Irwin in one direction, with five in the other.
The ship's crew are true believers in their cause with vegan fare solely served on board. Yet Captain Paul Watson, the Sea Shepherd founder, and other ships officers say they are scrupulous in only going after boats that are fishing illegally
- if they are not allotted a quota by ICCAT, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, or have exceeded it
- or their catch includes too many juveniles.
As the Steve Irwin approached the group of five boats to determine their identities and inspect their catch Saturday, high stakes maneuvering began at close quarters. The boats were Tunisian, and at least one was not licensed to fish, according to the Irwin's crew, and they did not respond to radio calls.
As the Sea Shepherd approached, two, then three, Tunisian boats scrambled to protect their net. Others tried to cut off the Steve Irwin or chase it away.
The Sea Shepherd environmentalists - who have no official enforcement powers
- deployed a small launch to inspect the cage, while the Tunisians deployed two small dinghies. Fishermen in the larger boats threw heavy links of chain at the environmentalists
- hitting no one, but eventually forcing the dinghies to retreat without being able to determine if there were tuna in the cage.
