Eco-vigilantes vs. an outlaw trawler, in a 10,000-mile chase

Eco-vigilantes vs. an outlaw trawler, in a 10,000-mile chase

Tuesday, July 28, 2015 9:33 AM EDT

For 110 days and more than 10,000 nautical miles across two seas and three oceans, the Bob Barker and a companion ship, both operated by the environmental organization Sea Shepherd, had trailed the Thunder, a fugitive fishing ship considered the world’s most notorious poacher.

In an epic game of cat-and-mouse, the ships maneuvered through an obstacle course of giant ice floes, endured a cyclone-like storm, faced clashes between opposing crews and nearly collided in what became the longest pursuit of an illegal fishing vessel in history.

Industrial-scale violators of fishing bans and protected areas are a main reason more than half of the world’s major fishing grounds have been depleted and by some estimates over 90 percent of the ocean’s large fish like marlin, tuna and swordfish have vanished. Interpol had issued a Purple Notice on the Thunder (the equivalent of adding it to a Most Wanted List), but no government had been willing to dedicate the personnel and millions of dollars needed to go after it. So Sea Shepherd did instead.

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