On the 25th of February Jordie and Gabriel left Cape Verde to join a Greenpeace vessel near Dakar. The Arctic Sunrise was exploring the seas of West Africa to identify and document supertrawler fishing activities. José was with us and we experienced first-hand the impact of these massive oceanic fish factories. A supertrawler looks like a floating skyscraper; they measure 140 meters in length and can catch up  to 250 tons per day. We often saw them fishing in networked groups of nine to identify and scoop up gigantic schools of fish in their entirety. Nothing remains after they pass, aside from a cloud of hungry seagulls.

Our 8 days aboard the ship were used to film action sequences with inflatable rib boats and a helicopter flying around the trawlers. We got key interviews with campaigners that allow us to show the global aspect of the localized stories we had been following in Cape Verde. On a personal note we will never forget this experience; Jordie had his worst days of all of production being battered by sea sickness, while Gabriel came home euphoric for having fulfilled his dream of filming from a helicopter and with fond memories of the dolphins who would gather around our ship at night.

Here is the photo gallery by Pierre Gleizes.
and here you can find a short extract of our helicopter landing on the ship.

All photos copyright of Pierre Gleizes/Greenpeace