Closing the net on pirate trawlers.

A while back I wrote an article about Japanese trawlers suspected of dodging tuna quotas by transhipping shipments in Gibraltar, where checks at the time were lax. The suspicion was that they were fishing in excess of what they were allowed and blurring the lines on their catch. Tuna laundering, in effect. We never managed to prove it, but after we ran that story the trawlers stopped coming and the government stepped up its monitoring.

But the practice hasn’t disappeared and tuna fisheries remain under threat. Thanks to groups like Greenpeace, the issue has been highlighted time and again – not just for tuna but for other fisheries too – and some action is being taken.

Today, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has reached a Binding Agreement on Port Controls to shut ports to pirate vessels. Greenpeace described it as a welcome step forward, but one that must be implemented without delay.

Under the agreement, some 60 countries finalised the negotiations to set Minimum Standards for Port State Control that establish requirements for controls of fishing vessels at port, including denying services to vessels found to be engaged in pirate fishing and to their support vessels. Other rules in the new agreement will enable States to refuse entry to vessels which cannot produce a valid fishing licence, or can be evidenced to be carrying illegally caught fish, or having supplied another pirate vessel. Criteria will also be in place to prioritise inspections or mechanisms to collect and share information on port controls among States. The Agreement now needs to be ratified by a minimum of 25 States in order to come into force.

According to Greenpeace, pirate fishing is a worldwide problem and vessels steal up to 20% of the global catch.

“Greenpeace urges States to ratify and implement the provisions of the Agreement as a matter of urgency,” the group said. “It is vital that this agreement is adopted by as many States as possible to help ensure that only legally and sustainably caught fish is available in the market.”

“Once the agreement is in force it will be possible to measure seafood industry players’ commitment to prevent illegal products from entering the markets by only buying fish that was landed in countries that have ratified and fully implemented this instrument.”

Let’s see if it works.

A mercenary plot.

From the vaults of the National Archives in London, an interesting tale of a 1970s coup against a West African dictator that was foiled thanks to a Special Branch informant in Gibraltar.

The events are set out in de-classified documents from the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office. The documents read like a spy thriller and tell the story of a group of mercenaries who planned to sail from Gibraltar and invade the island of Fernando Po (now called Bioko), home to the capital of Equatorial Guinea.

Details of the plot were leaked to local Special Branch officers by the Polish-born skipper of the Albatross, a boat hired to ferry the mercenaries down the African coast.

George Allan had chartered his vessel to carry out an oil survey off West Africa but became suspicious after military equipment was loaded on board. Although he feared for his life and that of his son, who was also on board, he volunteered information about the plot to police officers in Gibraltar.

Papers filed in the National Archives in London include a copy of the Special Branch report that sparked a flurry of diplomatic correspondence between Gibraltar, London and Madrid and led to the Albatross and its crew being intercepted in the Canary Islands.

The story of the coup provided the inspiration for Frederick Forsyth’s bestselling novel ‘The Dogs of War’, which was later made into a film.

The fictional account by Mr Forsyth mirrors what happened in real life and sets out in close detail how a group of mercenaries funded by a European mining company organised a coup in an African country to depose its president.

The novelist in fact knew many of the mercenaries involved in the failed 1970s plot and admitted discussing the coup with them during research for ‘The Dogs of War’.

The documents detailing the Gibraltar connection were first unearthed from the archives by a British journalist writing a book about a more recent coup attempt. ‘The Wonga Coup’ by Adam Roberts, a journalist with The Economist, charts the story of a group of mercenaries led by former SAS officer Simon Mann who planned to overthrow the government of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. In common with the first plot over 30 years ago, it too failed.

I got interested in this story after reading Roberts' book and obtained over 60 pages of diplomatic correspondence and ciphers relating to the 1970s plot from the National Archives in London, where the file has now been de-classified. The documents include a copy of the four-page Gibraltar report written by Fred Llambias, who was then head of Special Branch.

Under the heading “Re: Possible armed invasion of Fernando Po by mercenaries sometime after the 20th January, 1973.”, it describes how Mr Allan, owner of the Albatross, approached police officers in Gibraltar after becoming suspicious of a group of men who had chartered his vessel for an oil survey off West Africa.

The group, led by a man who called himself Harry, had asked him to sail the Albatross from its base on the Costa del Sol down to Gibraltar prior to making the 2,500-mile trip south along the African coastline.

While waiting in Gibraltar the group of men began taking on stores and equipment, including inflatable speedboats and a consignment of combat clothing.

Mr Allan and his son became increasingly mistrustful and began asking questions. “Between him and his son they managed to get the true story of the operation from ‘Harry’, who stated that the waiting period had been to enable him to finalise the purchase of 106 boxes each weighing 60 kilos of assorted but unspecified quantities of arms and ammunition,” Mr Llambias wrote in his report. “‘Harry’ had bought this from the Spanish Government through a German agent (identity unknown) for and on behalf of an African financier.”

Mr Allan told Special Branch officers that his instructions were to sail from Gibraltar to Portugal to pick up several more mercenaries before heading south toward the Canary Islands.

He was to rendezvous off the Canaries with a Corsican freighter that was carrying the Spanish-made arms, which would be transhipped to the Albatross. From there, the Albatross would sail south to an unknown destination to pick up 50 black mercenaries.

“Their final destination will be three miles off Fernando Po where, in conjunction with arrangements already made ashore, they will attempt to take over the island’s administration,” Mr Llambias wrote in his report.

Mr Allan knew the destination because he had secretly looked though Harry’s cabin and found maps of the island, a fact he volunteered to Special Branch officers “under a very lengthy interrogation”.

“Allan Snr was closely questioned as to the reason behind his approach to Special Branch and he explained that he was a Britisher [sic] and could not very well go over to the Spaniards,” the Special Branch report said. “He knew that there was nothing on board the boat at the present moment for us to take action. He had no alternative but to carry on with the operation because he knew that if he did not, his life and that of his son and of his wife would be short ones.”

“He had already been threatened to this effect by ‘Harry’.”

“He was therefore carrying on with the operation come what may and if he did survive, would report back.”

A death from the archive.

I was clearing out some files last night and came across this piece. It's a timeless account about a dead man at sea, which I wrote for the Chronicle a couple of year's back. I still get sad reading it.

In the coroner’s court
THE SAD TALE OF AN ANONYMOUS DEATH
• by Brian Reyes
They found him floating face down in the sea 22 miles off Europa Point.

He was about 50 years old and well dressed in a blue shirt, a green jumper and matching trousers.

But he had been in the water for some time and his corpse was in the advanced stages of decay. Between them, the waves and the fish had left little to identify him by.

On April 27, 2006, the crew on the Royal Navy frigate HMS Sutherland recovered the body and brought it to Gibraltar wrapped in a plastic bag.

So began an investigation into the background of this “Unknown Male”, a process that culminated yesterday morning in a short inquest in the Coroner’s Court.

No one knows who the man was. His name remains a mystery, so too his nationality.

Officials believe he may have been North African, but they are not sure.

No one knows how he died, though there were no signs of foul play. The man may have drowned. He may have suffered a heart attack.

“But it’s all speculation,” said Coroner Charles Pitto.

It was a short, solemn inquest. The Coroner was there, as was the court clerk and the duty officer. Also present was PC James Ignacio, the police officer who handled the investigation on the Coroner’s behalf. In the public gallery were two journalists.

There was no one else.

It was a tragic way to mark the end of a life, and the Coroner summed up the sentiment.

“It is normal at this stage to offer condolences to the family of the deceased, but this case is particularly sad because there is no one to offer condolences to,” Mr Pitto said after he formally opened the inquest. “The death of any human being is a matter to be regretted by each and every one of us.”

In the gloomy setting of the Magistrates Court, PC Ignacio, who has spent years in the Marine Section of the Royal Gibraltar Police, described what little was known of the man.

He said it was unlikely that the dead man was an illegal immigrant who drowned. The Strait of Gibraltar is notorious for such deaths, but the clues in this case pointed elsewhere.

“The clothes were of reasonable quality,” PC Ignacio said. “And he was not wearing any socks.” “Most immigrants are found wearing two or three pairs of socks, a couple of pairs of trousers, two or more jumpers.”

A doctor carried out a post mortem on the body, but it yielded little information. A file was put together listing all the available details, including dental x-rays taken by a military dentist in Gibraltar. Information of this type can prove vital to identification.

The dossier was circulated globally via Interpol by the Gibraltar Co-ordinating Centre for Criminal Intelligence and Drugs [GCID]. The hope was that someone somewhere would make a connection, recognise something. But it was no good.

“To date we have received no notification reference this body,” said Detective Constable John Sanchez, a police officer seconded to GCID. “It means that nobody has made any matches based on the information we provided.”

With little other option in the face of the scant evidence before him, the Coroner recorded an open verdict, cause of death unknown.

The final resting place of this unidentified man is as anonymous as the manner in which his life ended. In an overgrown corner of North Front cemetery, a small metal plate with a two-digit number marks the spot.

He was buried without fuss or ceremony in May 2006. The unknown dead man found at sea. Number 37.

A tale of two scrap ships...

I got a call from an old contact in the shipping industry last week. He wanted to tip me off to something. He said two US government ships had been sold and were going to be scrapped in a deal that sidestepped the country’s rules on toxic exports.

I started looking at this with Rajesh Joshi, a journalist based in New York. We pulled together a story that spans from the US to Bangladesh via London and Dubai.

The Basel Action Network, an environmental group that campaigns to stop illicit shipments of waste, said it had evidence that the ships were going to be scrapped in India or Bangladesh, where ships normally end their lives. The owner - represented by a company involved in ship scrapping - denied it and said the vessels would be traded. The US authorities, meanwhile, washed their hands of the lot and let the ships sail through a loophole. It's a bizarre situation.

Read our initial story here, and another in the Christian Science Monitor. Read too BAN’s subsequent statement, which includes links to hard documents.

One of the ships is currently on its way to Brazil, where it will likely pick up cargo. The campaigners suspect it will then sail to India or Bangladesh, unload, and head for the scrap beach.

This one will have to be revisited soon, no doubt…